Halloween Special: Trick or Greet Misery
by TrinityFlower of Memories
Summary: The Condor studio throws a Halloween party! But what happens when a ghost residing in Studio 13 scares the stars away? And who's this rival studio company that NO ONE'S talking about? Read if you dare! Some Channy in here! October Special
1. Promo

**IMPORTANT!!!!! : listen to http : // audiojungle . net / item / the-final-battle/59295 **as you read this chapter!

Special thanks to: **AnalystProductions **because I copied her promo format. Thanks girl!

A "Sonny With A Chance" Halloween Special—

"_**Trick or Great Misery**_"

**~*~*~PROMO~*~*~

* * *

**

_**H A L L O W E E N**_

**Is just ~**_** a ~ r ~ o ~ u ~ n ~ d **_**~ the corner**

"This is going to be the best Halloween party _ever!"_

"Really, Sonny_? Really?" _Chad smirked, loving his ever-so-clever line, but that didn't seem to bother Sonny today.

"Yes! It will! _Really!"_

**And everyone's **_**excited**_

Sonny looked up from the folder of the old worn-down black-and-white photographs. "I'm so excited! I'm even excited—"

"—about how excited you are, we _get it!" _Nico snapped, a bit edgy by the situation on hand.

**Even Nico and Grady are having a **_**bLaSt**_

"Wha—? A _Candy-Multiplier-Machine?"_ The black boy looked at his friend dumbfounded. Grady felt as if he was going to be yelled for his idiocy when Nico grinned, "_Awesome!" _

**Well, not **_**e v e r y o n e . . .**_

"Chad, Halloween is a part of the USA tradition," Sonny brought the blanket closer to her in fear as the TV screen lit up. Chad could only strain out a smile as his leg continued swinging up and down, sitting on the sofa arm.  
"_Yeah," _he muttered. "For the _Union of Small-Agers," _

_**But then…**_

"_GHOST!!!! GHOST IN THE ROOM!!!!"_

**A 50-year-old crime arises from the D E A D **

The group flickered through the contents of the folder, glancing through the old images, the crumpled newspaper articles illuminating the famous actor's glory of his era.

"Wow," Sonny whispered as her warm brown eyes skimmed across one specific photograph. "He was _really _famous. Look at this: he had his own merchandise, his own hotel…"

Tawni quickly pulled up something from the bag. "And even his own _lunchboxes," _she grinned.

Nico pulled out the heaviest items from the bottom. "And _wow..._look 'it all these awards."

The brunette shook away Tawni's statement, now reading through yesterday's article on Tween Weekly about the mishap. "And apparently he was as hot as Chad Dylan Cooper!"

Finding all wide glances at her, Sonny dryly laughed. "Heh…th-that's what it says on Tween Weekly…_yeah_…"

**People go **_**m**__i__**s**__s__**i**__n__**g**_

Just then, she spotted Chad's figure approaching her.

"Hey Chad, have you seen Portlyn?"

Chad blankly looked up from his script to find Sonny asking him a question.

"Sonny," he closed his eyes in embarrassment. "One: You do know that's her _character's _name, right? And _dos: why?" _his eyebrows crinkled in thought.

Sonny shrugged, in the way that Chad always found as _stupid cute. "_Either way, we wanted to invite her to go trick-or-treating with us—"

Chad's heart stopped. "—she hates the carbs," he abruptly interrupted.

Sonny frowned, bothered that Chad would actually take interest than just tell her where to find the girl. "Let me just talk to her."

But Sonny's scowl quickly lightened as Chad's pale eyes shown what she had feared.

"I…I don't know where she is."

**Others get **

**H**

**U**

**R**

**T**

"Sonny, you're such a diva," Chad snorted when Sonny caught a movement in the dark, and a fast _whoosh _from behind the young man.

"_Duck,"_ Sonny's voice became caught in her throat as she stood frozen watching.

Chad dramatically gasped. "That's _low!" _

"No, I mean _**DUCK**__!" _

***C*l*u*e*s* are found**

"Chad, look at this," the girl quickly mustered with her flashlight as Chad calmly walked over with hands in pockets. "Do you know what that means?"

"..._It can't be..."_

**And a V E R Y angry **_ghost _

**Is trying to make **

**Condor Studios**

**Become a **_ghost _**itself**

"Sonny…no…_Sonny_, _RUN!"_

**Based on the Disney-comedy series "Sonny with a Chance"**

…**Starring…**

**Sonny Munroe**

**Tawni Hart**

**Chad Dylan Cooper**

**Nico Harris**

**Grady Mitchell**

**Zora Lancaster**

…**And introducing…**

**The rival studio that **_**n****o**_** one talks about:**

Surprised by the fact that Chad would actually know something useful, Sonny gaped at him. "What?"

"Well," Chad shrugged as if it was the blandest rumor that everyone knew about. "That's _Condor Studio's _rival company—they hate us _so much." _

"Are they competition?"

**RODNOC STUDIOS**

Sonny watched as the new girl approached Chad, carrying an even more-conceited look if there could be that would beat Chad's _any day._

"Hello..._B.C.D." _the almost-girl-clone-of-Chad smirked, her voice as high as a pixie.

Sonny snorted in laughter, lightly smacking the young woman's shoulder. "Good one!"

*******

**A "Sonny With A Chance" Halloween special—**

_**Trick or Greet Misery**_

**A TFM Productions**

**~*~**

**Halloween is just around the corner**

**And a certain **_ghost _**is too.**

**~*~October 2009~*~**

**Coming to computer screens near you**

Chad nearly jumped as he felt his clammy hand be clasped by Sonny's. The overwhelming darkness wasn't much of a help either. As he looked over to her with slight amusement, Sonny's retort didn't help her. "It's dark and I can't see a _thing! _I'm _scared!" _she whispered.

"Well it's a good thing you're with _Chad Dylan Cooper. _I never get_—"_

Just then, a voice erupted from the other side of the musty old tunnel, deafening the two stars' ears as the sound became a stomach-hurling shriek.

"_OOHHHHHOooohhhh---_

_**AHHHHHHH**__"_

The sound was now gone as the kids huddled against each other in fear.

"Alright, I'm scared too," squeaked Chad.

…**B e w a r e…**

…_Be scared…_

* * *

A/N: This story will be my number 1 priority in terms of fanfics in October (ONLY IN OCTOBER!!) because I really want this completed by Halloween, despite college. I will work on S4P but only if I have time, but there will surely be at least 2 chapters updated next month for S4P, so that's not bad. Oh and heads-up—Chapter 17 for S4P just MAY be updated next week. I've been pretty busy studying for my college exams this week so I apologize for the lateness.

PS: Who here managed to read this chapter and finish it RIGHT when the song ended? It makes the story-reading pretty epic when you do!


	2. Chapter 1

**_~*~It is now October 1st and I present you the first chapter of "Halloween Special: Trick or Great Misery"!~*~_**

* * *

Thanks to all who've reviewed thus far for the promo: **NightxInxSterlingxArmor,** **Jonas x Knight, sonnycentral, MusicFreak-Sonny, Eilidh-xx, Dancing on Rainbows, monkey87, mindless scribbles, HorriblyAddicted, pinkconchshell, gAnGsTa GaBbY lOvEs JoKeR, Literari ****Lover, percabethforever369****, ZoeZora, Harryfan94, silver~roses, xHeSaidSheSaidx, Kylie Robbins, Dancing-StarryEyedDemigod, Change4Good, JateLexzieLit, SterlingIsMyKnight, Spunkalovely, Bhavana331, TheEntertainer26, EllietheDisneyfreak, AnalystProductions, daseyrocks, Fluffness, KSpazzed, klcthenerd, Always Juliet, best with breadsticks, ConfusifyingCristy, xxHeadInTheStarsxx.  
**Subscribers/alert who didn't review: Chanii3220, channylover808, kataang0, x-Lozzeh-x, channy4eva, 24QueenMo (that's a REALLY good number so far!)

I've drawn some sketches that are related to this story, like Sonny's costume but I have to wait until the weekend to scan them in. You can find Chad's, Tawni's, Nico's, and Zora's costume on my profile—you guys will _especially _love Chad's costume!

A special shout out to **Bhavana331** who's writing a fantastic SWAC Halloween story also! So be sure to read it!! And also to **sonnycentral **for helping me with Sonny's costume!

Disclaimer: I do not own SWAC, nor Frankenstein nor Edward Cullen or some of the Lemony Snicket styles I've used here...or pirates unfortunately. But I do own my plot.

* * *

Haunting hour was soon arriving. Hollywood, famous for its dazzling features, was now a ghost of the past, intricately transformed into "_Horrorwood_". The wind howled as it whistled wielding into the leafless trees, their bare branches like grappling hooks. Other trees so happened to set the colonial feel of raining greens, golden and orange crunchy leaves, all fallen to elaborate the ground.

The Condor Studio was equally majestic—on the inside. Studio 2 and 3, rival by ratings, was now at a union as the separating wall was taken down for the annual Condor Studios Halloween Party. Inside the shared building were the cast of the two shows, forced to work together as they scurried to outrank the other in terms of setting and decorating the best. Movement was so frantic you could barely catch which person in a Mackenzie Falls uniform delivered the food and what Random in a Halloween costume decorated the black-and-orange tables.

High up on a step-stool stood Sonny, cheery as ever, as she hung streamers of black, orange, and gold. She decided not to wear her Halloween costume just yet as it was a safety hazard being 8-feet high up, but her black tank and orange knee-length dress was just as festive. Inching forward to tape the glow-in-the-dark gold _moon-and-star-print_ decoration on the black streamer, Sonny beamed as she tried taping it when her ladder violently jerked, her streamer now lightly falling to the ground. Who other than Chad Dylan Cooper, the notorious conceited jerk himself smirked at meeting Sonny's frown?

"Be careful where you walk into, Chad," she muttered, only to find Chad's smug grow in ego.

"Oh, don't worry," he smirked as Sonny aimlessly watched. "I was _exceptionally_ careful knowing where to walk into."

Sonny huffed, whispering under her breath. "Jerk." She shook the rival emotions away, having promised herself earlier that no one and nothing could ruin tonight, even if Chad tried hassling her work.  
"Hey Chad," she pointed over to the fallen stream. "Could you pick that up please?" Chad sarcastically analyzed her question.  
"I could…but I _won't,_" he plastered a smile as he rolled his head, which only brought Sonny's nerves to a temperature of '_boil_'.

"'llow me, Sonny!" Nico, who so happened to pass by, dressed in a vampire costume, picked the streamer for her.  
Chad blankly looked at the boy's costume. "_Wow. _And I thought you already killed your viewers by your _show." _  
"Why _thank you Nico_," she sappily forced out a grin, hoping to make Chad notice. "Finally, a _gentleman_," she cooed, as she began climbing down the ladder.

"Well," Nico popped his collar with a swag, "_You know how I do_!" As Sonny chortled along with Nico, Chad's sneaky ocean eyes flashed over to find Grady spin dizzily across the floor, rolled up in streamers.  
"_Eat...brains!" _the porky boy walked stiffly across like a zombie, catching everyone's attention. But then, Chad caught the big man himself walking over to them—Mr. Condor; a brilliant idea approached the "_bad-boy."_

"Hey," Sonny's head snapped forward to find Chad's apologetic looks as he laid a gentle hand on the girl's shoulder. "Sonny, let me take it from here," he softly said, feigning _such_ interest that Sonny had no force to cling on to the streamer as he pulled it away from her.

"Wow, thanks Chad!" she awed, then eagerly clapped. "This is going to be the best Halloween party _ever!" _  
Chad smirked as he mentally calculated how long he had before Mr. Condor approached them. "Really, Sonny? _Really?"  
_But Sonny was all smiles. "Yes! It will! _Really! _I mean, even _you're _helping, Chad, and _that's _amazing!"

Chad coolly shrugged with a wink. "Well, I _am_ all for the team."

As soon as Sonny's beam fell morphed into confusion at the spouting lie, Chad furiously began climbing to the top of the ladder, then waving over to Mr. Condor.  
"Hey Mr. Condor! Like the work I did? _All by myself_?"

With a final conceited wink from Chad, Sonny gasped, fuming.

~*~

"Man, I cannot _wait_ for this party. It gonna be so much _fun_!" Nico punched the air, waiting for Grady to finish putting on his costume as the two were in their dressing room.

"Yeah!" said Grady's muffled voice from behind the changing curtain. "We get to bob for apples and eat pumpkin _pie. _What could be better than _that?"_

Nico smirked. "I will tell you, m'friend. Not _only _do we get to do _those,_ but we get _scared girls_ to dance with!"

"_Ooh_," Grady's voice shuddered. "Those freaky decorative dolls scared the _pants_ off me!" Just then, the changing curtain waved to the side, revealing Grady proudly standing tall wearing a Frankenstein mask but his hair was in crazy pigtails. Along with that, he wore a short plaid skirt that should _never_ be seen on a male. "Who _knows _what'll creep 'em out…_cool_!" he giddily bounced.

Nico jaw-dropped in awe to his friend. "_Man, who scared the pants off o'you_?!"

"What? Oh this?" Grady daintily picked the skirt's edge by the hem and twirled side-to side on his feet. "I'm a _Zora-stein_. After _much _consideration, I've realized Zora's 'bout the scariest thing," Grady feebly chuckled.  
"_Uh-huh_…" the leaner of the two muttered as he walked out of the door with his pal beside him. "Man, I do hope we get some more candy dis year," Nico suggested as Grady nodded along. "I mean," continued Nico, "the last two years have been _alright, _but it wasn't worth a _thing!"_

"I'm pretty sure it's because most of the people thought we're too old, like that one grandma who chased us," Grady reminisced.  
"You mean _handsome_," smugged Nico. By now, the two had continued walking off towards the set when Grady's mind had a magnificent idea.  
"_Unless_," he stopped Nico in his tracks. "We make a _candy multiplier machine_!" The black boy looked at his friend dumbfound.  
"What, a _candy multiplier machine?!_" Grady felt as if he was going to be yelled at for his dimwitted idea when Nico grinned. "_Awesome!_"

~*~

The haunting hour had arrived as the cast and crew of the Condor shows piled through. Sonny, in her costume, marveled at the decorations that both the MackFallites and Randoms had done, like the streams symmetrically covering that ceiling, or the intricately carved pumpkins, the paper-mached balloons and mask, even Zora's work made her proud—the Little Random had a blast stretching out fake spider webs and putting glow-in-the-dark spiders in them, and constructing robotic mannequins.

"Wow!" she exclaimed, meeting up with her friends. "This party is _fantastic! _And look at all the people enjoying themselves," Sonny carried on. Of course, as she looked around, there were very few people who stood out to the sides, looking very shifty. It lightly occurred to Sonny that she did not know who they were, and usually everyone knew everyone here. But this was quickly forgotten.

"Yeah, I know!" Grady bounced, still in his Frankenstein mask and Zora skirt. "We've got apple-bobbing, a mummy race...a _scarecrow destruction!"  
"_Yeah, and we even have more creative stations, like "_Pin the stake on the vampire_," Nico motioned over to where a blindfolded person was dizzily trying to put the stake on an Edward Cullen poster.  
"And look it all those _dishes: _pumpkin fries, pumpkin Alfredo, pumpkin sherbet..." _That's _when the Random boys found their eyes upon the Meal-or-No-Meal girls dressed as big puffy pumpkins.  
"And I'm about to go get me a slice of some _sweet pumpkin pie!" _Grady jumped.  
"Hmm-_mm!" _Nico lead the way.  
As Sonny beamed, watching the boys leave, Tawni approached her in a beautiful Tinkerbell costume, despite her golden hair adorned with a silver crown.  
"Tawni, you look so beautiful!" Sonny cooed, attacking her almost-friend with a tight hug, causing the tween queen to fight herself out.  
"My bubble, my _bubble! _What _part _of that do you not _understand?!" _Tawni glowered as Sonny cutely shrugged, waiting for Tawni to cool. "You look..." Tawni began to say when her eyes widened.  
"What are you supposed to look _like?" _

With a slight twirl, Sonny looked down at her costume—it was a sunflower with a purple stalk. Starting out with her custom-made brown moccasins that stretched out to look like roots, she wore a purple cute long-sleeve shirt and a purple skirt with purple leggings. Her arms were succumbed in what appeared to be real green leaves, all paper-mached onto one another. And to top it off, a black beret rested on her head as she wore a sunflower-petaled headdress with petals one foot tall spiked around her whole head.  
"Oh, this?" Sonny gushed. "I'm a _sonny-flower, _get it?" she snorted when a pirate in a puffy white _pirate _shirt and a black bandana on his sandy-golden hair had his back faced to the girls.  
"_Whoa," _Sonny bit her lip smiling. "That is one _hot _pirate."  
Sonny knew something was wrong when Tawni appeared bug-eyed and the pirate turned around, morphing into a cocky-smirking, jerk-throbbing Chad.  
"You _finally _admit it," he smirked, having way too much fun with this.  
Sonny scoffed, quickly frowning. "Y-your..._shirt's _hot, not _you!" _She stuttered, her head frantically bobbing up and down in defense when her nod slowly turned weak until she gave one last firm nod.  
"Heh, _what are you?" _Chad looked Sonny up and down.  
"A _sonny-flower," _she quickly beamed which was quickly wiped off after Chad's blatant comment of "_Sunflowers aren't purple._"  
"Well," scoffed Sonny. "I'm creative, so _ha!" _  
With a light smile, Chad couldn't help but chuckle. "Huh." He started to turn around when he turned on his foot, facing back to Sonny.  
"Well, I was ...wondering if you'd like to—"  
"Hey Sonny," Tawni briefly interrupted. "You'll go do the pumpkin toss so I can win the pumpkin cape! _Let's _go!" Tawni demanded, yanking on Sonny, both girls leaving Chad standing aghast.

Halfway into the dance, the crowd had fun like none other. Almost everyone was happily dancing to the current song of "The Monster Mash"...nearly everyone.  
For some strange occurrence, Chad eagerly pestered Sonny, always starting off with the same way: "Would you like t—" but already accustomed to his ego, Sonny would always rush away to whether it be a dance with her friends, or to grab a bite to eat, with the same answer, "Not _now, _Chad."

It wasn't until the third time that Chad gave up, his head downcast, pacing around the concessions watching aside. But besides that, everyone was enjoying themselves.  
Sonny didn't know _why _she ignored Chad, as she danced with the other Randoms, and yet always finding herself to always be glancing up at Chad every other moment. She just _really _didn't want her _sunniness _to be brought down and –_let's face it—_Chad Dylan Cooper usually did bring the mood down and stormy 85% of the time. And the only times he _was _nice and caring was when they were nearly always alone together—something that just couldn't and _wouldn't _happen at a Halloween party.

She continued dancing in a happy manner next to Zora, who was dressed as a hunted bear, with an arrow through the bear costume's head with splattered fake blood. The bear costume was used many a times, the latest being when Zora wore it during the "Gary and Larry" sketch.

"I need to find my access card. Take my drink." Sonny's soft brown eyes flashed as she indirectly watched Portlyn in a sleek small black dress shove her drink into a grumbling Chad's hands.  
"You're _welcome!" _Chad sarcastically praised over the drama queen's distancing figure.  
"Huh," Sonny muttered, dancing near the girls. "Chad must be in a really bad mood."  
Tawni paid no attention. "Why do _you _care what mood he's in?"  
"Oh, I don't," Sonny rushed her words a bit too fast.  
"Hmm-_mm," _the blond pursed her lips.  
A few moments passed and the atmosphere was a disturbingly cheery as ever when Portlyn, her look of pure dread on her wan face, ran shrieking into the combined studio arena.

"_**GHOST!! GHOST IN THE DRESSING ROOM!" **_

_Now would be a wonderful time to end this chapter, but the truth is, the reader would be in more suspense than the actual party-goers, who, truth be told, weren't as eager to listen in on what the snooty star was screaming about. All except for the _ghost_ part._

"The screaming for next week's shooting, not now," Chad called out callously.  
"_Chad," _she stumbled, racing over t him for support as she shook in fear. "In my dressing room, there was a _ghost. _And some weird message...and _blood." _the girl cried, pulling on Chad's puffy pirate shirt.

By now, attention was all focused at her when...

"_Spiders!" _someone shrieked from the other side of the dance floor. As the Randoms and stars of MacKenzie Falls looked out to the side, each twitched or gasped or ran the _heck _out of the room when they viewed countless of bugs and spiders on the fake spiderwebs which surrounded the crowd like a veil. There were beetles on the cupcakes and cookies that, at the beginning of the dance, had been beetle _rings _or plastic beetles. Where fake gummy worms once floated in the punchbowl, hundreds of living slimy earthworms now tried climbing out of the bowl. Someone screamed to look up. Near the ceiling lights, ten or more so large dolls rose up, each somehow causing the recording tape on them to go off, playing evil laughter.  
Unable to believe it, Sonny quickly looked at Zora, not wanting to say it but she had to. "Zora, you didn't—!!"  
"_Course not!" _the girl cried, showing her rare display of fear.  
Pandemonium struck when the lights began flickering on, off, and on again, causing everyone stampeding over to the exit signs. For the Randoms and the Fall-doms, both dashed to witness this _message _and the so-called _ghost.  
_As each one raced behind the other in their costume, they past the studio directors including Marshall and Mr. Condor, all screaming for everyone to try to calm down.  
"This way," Portlyn whimpered, opening up her dressing room for both cast, not in the least bit angered that she was allowing access for the rival show.  
"Wha, I don't see any—" Nico began to argue when Portlyn pointed forward.  
"Over there," Portlyn's voice trembled. It was as if everyone had stopped breathing, fore what they saw could not be possible. On the mirror in a thick blood-like substance was writing:

_**I HAVE RETURNED TO CLAIM WHAT'S MINE. **_

_**STAY IF YOU WISH TO BE HARMED**_

_**--JAMES ESSER**_

Not a single creak, tap nor breath was heard as the young adults glanced at one another uneasily, intoxicated by fear.  
The big cuddly bear with the arrow through her head then realized something. "Hold up," Zora's voice piped from within the bear costume, losing all quirk. "I have my camera with me." The stars watched as the bear's head popped off, revealing Zora's head as she pulled on a huge black mass inch-by-inch—a professional one foot-long camera.  
"Now's not the time for taking pictures," said a soft voice within the group, stirring them all to jump. Looking around for the speaker, Sonny could had sworn it was the MacKenzie Fall's silent Asian girl.  
"_Wow! _You can _talk!?" _Sonny exclaimed, earning many huffs of laughter on her side and a glare or two from the other..._or five_.  
"_Please," _Chad introduced his "Mr. Business Finer" to the Randoms, "would you _not _insult us at a time of crisis here?"  
He then turned to the Asian girl. "You can talk?"

As the Asian girl eagerly bobbed her head, Zora began taking pictures of the message from different angles.  
"I'm documenting visual evidence of the premises for future reference of this investigation." Blank looks awaited her after that loquacious statement.  
She sighed. "_Pretty. Picture. Help. Find. Meanie. Butt!" _  
"_Oh!" _everyone nodded smiling when Sonny felt her inner analytical detective side taking over as she walked towards the "message".  
"Huh," she muttered as she looked closer when Tawni cried from behind.  
_"Ooh, look! _A pretty flower!" Tawni gasped, quickly falling to the flower to pick it up. It was certainly a purple flower like none other. (**A/N: To see the flower, check my profile**)  
"Was that always there?" Sonny asked Portlyn, who was nearly back to her old dramatic self.  
"_Eww, _I wouldn't be caught _dead _near that color!" She then looked at Sonny's unique purple flower costume. "But apparently _you _would," she smirked.  
"Oh, and look it here," Nico muttered, ignoring Portlyn's comment as he bent forward towards the lower right-hand side of the mirror. "There's some symbol near this guy's name."

"_I found them!" _the kids jumped at the sudden loudness of the statement as Marshall ran in with all the other producers along with Condor.  
"Hey, you kiddos. It's n-not safe here," Marshall's voice quivered as he looked around for any signs of trouble.  
Condor on the other hand wanted to get to the bottom of why there was trouble in his studio. "You said something about a ghost?"  
Portlyn meekly nodded. "Yeah, I came to look for my access card and some girl found it for me. Then I came in to my room and found...a ghost. And that message," she pointed towards the mirror, letting all the producers go to investigate.

Condor frowned. "A _real _ghost?"  
But Sonny interfered. "Sir, I don't think so for some reason. It could be someone playing a prank on us, by pretending to be a ghost."  
Chad's eyebrows creased. "But everyone was at the party." Sonny could only answer with a shrug.  
All eyes turned wide as Nico began to stutter. "O-oh, _good. _So...if it _looks _like a ghost, it's not."  
Sonny nodded with a smile. "Yep!"  
"And just to be sure, if it looks _real _evil, it's fake."  
"Oh yes."  
"And if it's _right behind us, _we have _nothing _to worry about?" Nico squeaked as he cowered behind the other stars. _  
_

Sonny's eyes grew huge as she slowly turned around to face a ghoulish transparent body of a male with black pools of ice for eyes. The atmosphere suddenly turned freezing, as if you were paralyzed, screaming on the inside.  
"I will warn you _one last time," _the ghost appeared to whisper before its hoarse voice roared.

"_**LEAVE THE STUDIO AND LET MY LOST LOVE COME BACK TO ME! IF YOU DO NOT, YOU WILL PERISH LIKE I DID IN STUDIO 13!"**  
_

All power in the studio momentarily turned off, leaving a screaming panic in the midst of the pitch dark as a ghastly malicious cackle was heard throughout all fourteen studios.

_~*~*~And now you may fear~*~*~_

_~*~Let thy suspense begin~*~_


	3. Chapter 2

http://www . youtube . com /watch?v=oFdGhIc5nl0

_**YOU MUST WATCH THE TRAILER IN THE ABOVE LINK**_. No joke! The ever-est-most-awesome-est _**daseyrocks**_ made a trailer for this story and I swear, I was about to NOT give you this chapter until you watch her trailer, it's amazing, and she only did it because of the kindness in her heart!!! Thanks so much—this whole story goes out to you, M!!!!!

Disclaimer: I don't own Nancy Drew, Scooby Doo nor anything related to SWAC, or the Suite Life quotes, like one that Murial once said, or the Hannah Montana title of a song, or my friend's title for his poem, OR the Wizard of Oz line.

Also, if you haven't, please check out the pictures related to this story in my profile. There's a picture of Chad _**IN**_ a pirate shirt, and my sketch of Sonny's 'Sonny-flower' costume and etc.

Dedication to:**pinkconchshell** for making me writing this so passionately that I couldn't eat or drink until I was done, haha. Thanks!

PS: I was supposed to update tomorrow...but I couldn't wait--and it's still in October, haha!

* * *

Today was the day—Halloween was here. But no one cared about how much candy they would get tonight, or who would wear the best costume. No ghoul nor goblin, witch nor monster could stir all Condor stars from their focus of interest—_but a ghost could. _Unlike an hour ago, the 14 studios were frantic and excited, whispering about how cool the party was, the terror that struck at exactly midnight and the supposed _ghost_ that wandered throughout. Meanwhile, studio 2 and 3 were busy scheming, briefing over facts, over what was going on and why.

"My parents said I could stay," Zora noted as she slipped her mobile into her sock. Even without her quirkiness, Zora still displayed excitement. _For what, you may ask?_

"There is a _ghost _and you guys want to spend the _night _here? Are you _crazy!?" _Tawni yelled, having earlier been almost threatened that if she were to go home, she could not be in her sketch this week.  
"Oh, it's not a ghost," Sonny plainly mustered back, laying belly-down on the vibrant-colored rug as her legs swung up and down. By now, everyone was out of their costume.

"What makes you so sure?" Nico looked up at her nervously, a bit freaked out by seeing the ghost still.  
Sonny shrugged. "I'm not. But I've always wanted to solve a mystery when I was little!" she squealed.  
Grady laughed bemused. "Ah, I'm guessing you were a Scooby Doo and Nancy Drew fan?" Sonny eagerly nodded.  
"Yes!"  
"Me too!" exclaimed Grady.  
Tawni chuckled. "You mean the _Hardy Boys?_"  
"No."

Suddenly they heard loud footsteps nearing towards the prop house entrance. Each held their breath, seeing as their whole Random group was already there. _Who else could be coming at 1am in the morning?  
"_Oh—" said Marshall.  
"_AHHHH!—_oh," the kids began to scream when realization hit them.  
"You kids are staying the night?" Marshall asked, with a bit of a quiver in his voice.  
"_Yeah!"  
"Heh," _he dryly chuckled. "How..._brave _and naïve of you. _Anyway—!"_

"Hey Marshall, so what's Condor saying about all o'this?" Nico asked, with his hands clasped together on his bent knees.  
"Oh, he's mad," Mr. Pike wiped the sweat from his bald area on his head. "Some stars are refusing to work, they're so scared. And you know how mad Mr. Condor gets when someone else has his power. If he loses half his stars by the end of the month..." Marshall looked at his watch, tugging nervously on his collar, "which would be today, the studio may have to close down."

Everyone gasped.

"Heh, I bet he's so mad, if the ghost wasn't dead, Condor would _kill_ him...course, then we wouldn't _have _a ghost..." Marshall rambled.  
"Anyway, I thought if you guys were curious about what's going on, you could look through all these things that deal with the ghost. And I also brought the latest edition of Tween Weekly—it mentions about our party ordeal," Marshall dropped the heavy paper-bags and rolled up magazine near the kids.  
"Thanks!" the kids all chimed, eagerly taking out folders and items from the bag. It was then that everyone noticed Sonny's attire.  
"Were you _always _wearing that?" Tawni wrinkled her nose.  
Sonny beamed, enjoying the warmth of the plaid long overcoat and the deerstalker hat, similar to that of Sherlock's.  
"You like it? I changed when he was talking!"  
"Well," Marshall nodded uneasily. "You kids have..._fun_ and I'll miss you if I don't see you tomorrow. I think I'll start looking for …_replacements _for you guys, just in case."

The kids nodded.  
"Now I'm going home and ..._sleeping near my mother." _And with that last statement, he rushed out.  
"Well," Sonny illuminated her megawatt smile, "let's get to work, gang!" She then grabbed a folder in excitement. "_Detective Monroe is on the case!"_

A shrill wind was heard outside as the friends huddled together, looking through the venerable and worn-down belongings.  
"Wow," Sonny whispered as her warm brown eyes skimmed across one specific photograph. "He was _really _famous. Look at this: he had his own merchandise, his own hotel…"

"And look at all these _awards and his own merchandise!" _Nico gently set five heavy golden awards down.  
"He even had his own _hotel!" _Zora pointed to the dusty hotel certification.

"Oh, guys, listen to this," Sonny noted, reading from an article. "_On Halloween night of 1956, James Esser, the greatest actor of his generation, was found dead in his burning dressing room during his movie premiere for "Losing Lost Love". The movie premiere was also his Halloween party. The death has been categorized as a second degree murder. Apparently his dressing room was caught on fire but there are traces that allude to the fact that Esser was dead beforehand." _Sonny stopped reading as she began to grow numb from the incitation.

"Look, there's another one," Grady muttered, finding another article. "And it happened a little bit after Sonny's article: "MURDER IN HOLLYWOOD"…awh, it just talks about the same thing though. But it also says that James Esser is noted for always carrying a 'passion' flower…it looks exactly like the one in Portlyn's room!"

"Here's something," Zora read. "_GUSTAVLAI STUDIOS NOW CONDOR STUDIOS: Mr. Hendrick Condor, assistant producer at the time of Esser's death has bought the Gustavlai Studio, which was supposed to be sold to the late James Esser '_James Esser was a good friend of mine_," __Condor says, while holding his son, little Henry Jr. ("_That's must be Mr. Condor _now_," whispered Sonny) 'I'll be keeping his dressing room as a studio here as a landmark in its same state—' _STUDIO 13!" _the group exclaimed.  
"That means he died right _near _us!" Tawni shuddered as Nico and Zora began heading off to look at another bag.

"Wow, this guy's made _hundreds _of movies: "_Where Roads Knock_," "_Why Me_," "_Best of Both Worlds,_" "_I Once Knew You_," and ...haha... "_A James Esser Story_."  
Tawni wrinkled her nose. "'Sounds more and more like _Chad!" _But then something caught her eye. "Oooh, but look! He even had his own _lunchboxes!"_  
Sonny then grabbed the latest edition of Tween Weekly, quickly skimming through it. "Speaking of Chad, it says here that Esser was the Chad Dylan Cooper of his time…and supposedly he was as hot as _Chad!"_ Sonny grinned, when she met 4 pairs of eyes blinking blankly at her. "Heh," she dryly chuckled. "T-that's what it says _here…_ _supposedly _he's as hot, pssh!"

Zora picked up one of the movie cases closest to her reach. "_When you __**Wants**__ To'?" _She read the movie title's name. "Geez, you'd think they'd have better writing skills back then!" Zora enlightened as she tossed the video to the pile.  
"_He-ey! _These are 50-years old or more and probably worth millions," Sonny muttered. Exchanging glances, Nico and Grady cautiously picketed a few movies, placing them under their arm pits.  
"And that does _not," _Sonny snapped, "mean you guys will sell them!"  
"_Man_!"

"Hmm," Zora muttered. "It says here that right before his movie premiere, he spent a month in India and really enjoyed the culture, but that's all it says."  
"Aw, how sad!" Tawni muttered to herself after reading another article. "Listen: _One year later after the death of James Esser, investigators have suspected that the late Esser's love Marly Jean had disappeared before Esser's mysterious death. Reports claim they have seen her with another man. '_Not possible,' _claims Esser. '_I will propose to her the night of my Halloween party and the movie premiere. She said she will be back for it._' Marly Jean was never seen at the party. _"  
"Awh, how sweet!" Sonny cooed when her face fell. "And yet so _sad." _

_"_No, you guys wanna know what's _really _sad?" Grady pouted. "I won't be able to sleep tonight, knowing those Falls could prank us at any moment!"

"Nah," Nico shrugged it off. "They're probably too freaked out anyway." Grady nodded in agreement.  
"Huh," The fierce brunette suddenly thought of something. "_Hey! _Do you think this _Marly Jean _person is the lost love?"  
Tawni shrugged. "Sounds like it—she disappeared before his death."

With a nod, Sonny continued searching through the actor's belongings when she noticed a symbol on some of the movie cover titles. "Weird. Some of these movies have some sort of..._stamp _or something on it. _Maybe it's a clue!" _By this time, the boys were appearing to be edgy shivering or twitching as they looked around them to make sure no ghoulish substance or anything creepy was near them.

"Sonny, you could make this _banana peel _as a clue," Nico protested. "But all it shows is that someone ate it—that's all," he pointed out, when he realized, "Man, who ate m'banana!?" Everyone looked around, finding Grady's cheeks blown up with the hidden mush of the banana.  
Tawni yawned, stretching out to lie comfortably on the sofa. "I'm _tired."_  
Sonny ignored this. "You guys, we are going to stay up _all night," _Sonny demanded, "to search out clues. We can't _sleep! All night, you hear me!?!" _

~*~

Sonny laid limp on the fuzzy carpet, drooling as she slept with her mouth wide open. The strong glow of the sunlight through the curtains enticed everyone to wake up minutes later--happily, relaxed (meaning they had slept), until remembering they were in the middle of a mystery.  
"It's bright and sunny, there's a mystery to solve," Sonny widely smiled as she stretched setting up from her sleeping bag. "I'm so excited. I'm even—"  
"Excited about how excited you are, we get it!" Nico snapped, hate being woken up early. Sonny light joked as she jumped to her feet, still in her detective attire.

"Well someone's a _Crabbypants _this morning," she used her cute little deep voice.

"You know, I think MacKenzie Falls is just makin' all of this up for attention," yawned Grady. Sonny squealed, "A brilliant deduction, Watson!" and then started scribbling down in her small notepad.  
"Well," she grinned, tucking her notepad away, "to get to the bottom of this mystery, I'm gonna have to talk to all the witnesses!"

Excited as could be, Sonny bounced out of the room eager to find more clues. It wasn't hard to find the usually-absent-minded girl—in front of the wall-sized mirror in the MacKenzie Falls lobby.

"Hi Portlyn," Sonny cheerily addressed, as if it were her right to be as happy. The high-class brunette tilted her head in curiosity, her eyes wide as she turned to face Sonny patiently greeting her with a smile. "Are you _talking _to me?" Portlyn gasped.  
"A-actually, I'm asking you questions…which technically _would _be talking. I-I know you don't usually like us but I really wanna solve this mystery about the ghost and everything and seeing as you're the one who saw the ghost—well, I thought—"  
Sonny scrambled with her words hurled by a linguistic whirlwind when Portlyn suddenly and literally clamped Sonny's lips shut.

"Chad was _right," _Portyln stated like a blond, carrying a wide-eye expression. "You _do _talk a lot."  
"Aww, Chad talks about me?" Sonny cooed before remembering her mission, shaking her head. "Never mind that. _What exactly happened when you came to your room, last night_?" Sonny asked in a comedic deep voice, pencil in hand ready to jot notes.  
Portlyn shrugged "That's the weird part. I came from the party to go look for my access card to my room and some girl gave it to me." Gears started turning in Sonny's mind.

"You don't know the girl?"  
"Uh-uh. Never saw her before, weird, right? Cuz I mean, we all know each other."  
"Did she know it was your card to your dressing room?"  
"Guess so, she gave it right to me." Sonny quickly jot in her notebook--'_never-before seen girl found access card—could had done it.' _

_But now who was this girl and why has no one ever seen her before?_

"What about when you came in to the room? Was there any difference?"  
"Well, I was pretty much occupied screaming at a ghost and reading that creepy message but after you guys left, we saw that everything was there."  
"Huh," Sonny carried her word out mysteriously before her perky demeanor took over. "Well, thanks! Nico and Grady thought you guys did it all for attention."

Portlyn shook her head with a chuckle. "Oh no, we could've never do that."  
"Because you're not really attention-seeking jerks?" Sonny assumed hopefully.  
"No, we are," Portlyn smugged. "But we would need a script to do it."  
"Oh..." Sonny's face fell before another grin showed up. "Well, thanks!"  
"You know," Portlyn called out right when Sonny turned to go. "You Randoms aren't' that bad. You're actually kind of cool."  
This made Sonny feel even sunnier. "Aw, well thanks! You too!"

Right when Sonny turned a corner and disappear, Portlyn tilted in head. "Who's Nico and Grady?"

_~*~_

Tawni Hart diligently re-applied her make-up in her side of the dressing room, not caring about anything supernatural at this point. Tawni's door suddenly opened as Josh the mail guy walked in with his mail cart.  
"Got your fan mail here, Tawni," Josh meekly stated—he always found fear when he had to approach the tween queen.

"Are there more than 150?" Tawni called out, not even giving the intruder a glance. Why should she? All the pretty was in her reflection!  
"Um," Josh quivered, his huge lensed-glasses actually vibrating. "Let me check:_ 1…2…3…"_

Tawni sighed in frustration. "Boredal_-ready!_ Ok, ok, I'll take 'em." She quaintly got up, grabbed the huge bundle and quickly flipped through them. "I really despise those letters that they talk about themselves or our …similarities," she gave a disgusted look as if that word tasted bitter. "You know what I'm talking about?" she asked Josh.  
"I-I can't say that I do, Ms. Hart," Josh stuttered.  
"Of course not," Tawni waved the idea away. "I forgot you weren't famous." She then spied a large bouquet of flowers in the cart.

"Ooh! Are those flowers for me?" Tawni pulled out the flowers, when she saw what kind they were—the same that she had picked up from Portlyn's dressing room…the same the ghost had left.  
"No! Now give those back," Josh whined. "Th-they're…they're for someone else."

She gasped._ "He-ey…_wait, I saw those before." It then dawned on her. "You're the ghost, aren't you?"  
Josh cowered back. "I-I don't think so."  
Not being able to trust him, Tawni lightly frowned at him in accusation.

_~*~_

Little wacky Zora was going about her day, riding her scooter about the commissary to find anything suspicious when one of the creepy life-like dolls randomly floated in the air, coming near her. Usually, a doll such as this would make you relive some stories from Goosebumps, but these type of extraordinary actions did not fret Zora.

"Awe, how cute!" she innocently grinned when suddenly, 4 feet of pure evil happened around the corner—the vicious Dakota Condor.  
Zora gasped. _"EVIL!!!"_

_"YOU!"_ The even littler-girl demanded, causing Zora to jump back in fear with her eyes widened. "Get out of the way!" the 9-year-old tried shoving Zora but it took all of Zora's strength to hold steady. She then heard light buzzing.  
"What's in your pocket?" Zora narrowed her eyes.  
"Wouldn't you like to know," Dakota sneered.

As Dakota tried getting around the older girl, Zora unsuspectingly tripped Dakota. When Dakota fell, Zora looked about as if nothing in the world has happened, least of all someone falling from a trip. And Zora would have continued walking by had she not seen what fell out from Dakota's pockets.  
She bent over, grabbing the air-tight jar, filled with angry wasps, scurrying spiders. "What are you doing with them?!" she cried, feeling pity for the tiny creatures.  
Automatically, Dakota's ego dropped. "N-nothing," she muttered shaken up, before she grabbed the jar and sped away.  
Zora kept her narrowed eyes on the girl until her figure disappeared._ "Evil…"_

_~*~_

"First we place the modulator here," Grady enlightened as the two boys sat in the Prop House working intently on their Candy Multiplier Machine. As soon as he clipped in the wires, a whirring sound came to be.  
"And the bowl here," Nico added, pressing in a contained bowl with a small opening to the battery.  
"And the time machine here!" Grady beamed, smacking his self-made wooden clock onto the pile of items.  
Nico looked at him dumbfounded. "Dude, that. Is. A . Clock!" he insisted. "How many times I gotta tell ya, man?"  
But he was answered by Grady's wiggling finger. "Uh-uh-uh! That is where you are mistaken! See the big hand?" Grady modeled. "When you insert candy where it says_ 'insert candy,'_ the big hand'll spin back in time, thus, multiplying the total amount of candy!"

"Huh, impressive," Nico pursed his lips into a smile as he nodded suavely.  
"Now," muttered Nico. "Let's see if dis'll work." But quaintly, Grady slapped Nico's hand away from the 'On/Off' switch they had taken off from Tawni's hairdryer.  
"No, we still need some more tools. C'mon," Grady waved over. "Let's go see where we can find some."

As the two walked out the door talking to each other, turning corners, the two came across Condor's office when Nico pulled Grady back to the wall to be unseen.

"He-ey," quickly hissed Nico. "Look a'that."  
Grady looked over to find Murphy, the studio security guard, cautiously looking about beside Mr. Condor's closed door. "Murphy's got new _shoes!"_ Grady exclaimed.  
"Not that," Nico hissed as he backhand slapped his pal. Just then, they witnessed Murphy quickly walk into Mr. Condor's office, closing the door softly.  
Seeing as Murphy wasn't coming out any time soon, the two boys eased, unclamped themselves from the wall. "What's a security guard going into the big guy's office for?" Nico asked suspiciously.  
"Yeah," Grady agreed. "Ya see him? He was all…shifty-lookin'," Grady emphasized his hands to his eyes.  
"Weird," stated Nico, still narrowing eyes at the door before the two continued.

_~*~_

_Sonny walk towards the girls' dressing room when she hear blood-curling scream from within. The skin on Sonny's flesh instantaneously turned into goose-bumps, a feeling of dread overcoming what was going on. Just then, Tawni emerged from the door—in the worst state possible: numerous of yellows and furry blacks and fuzzy browns and slimy red covered the tween queen inch-by-inch. It wasn't until Sonny looked closer that she realized they were insects...living ones._

_"Wasp, spiders, earthworms... running amuck in our room!"_ she quivered, crying insanely.  
_"Oh my!"_ Sonny gasped in horror, her eyes wide as Tawni jingled, shrieking as she tried flicking off some spiders.

With Tawni now running away as fast as she could, Sonny had full access to look into their room—to find countless of insects on nearly every square foot of their room. Spiders scurried across all the girl's belongings; wasps and hornets buzzed near Zora's vent; nearly hundreds of fleshy pink earthworms squirmed everywhere else. The wasps began rampaging towards the open door, towards Sonny. Before she screamed, trying to slam the door shut, she could had sworn she saw something glitter on the floor—a golden lid, next to a small glass jar and a purple passion flower—signifying that the ghost of James Esser had _indeed_ intruded upon them._

* * *

_

_Chapter 3 will be updated October 16 in order for Chapter 5 to be updated on Halloween. And also due to brief curiosity, in your review, please say what's your favorite Halloween DCOM! Like mine would be 'Under Wraps', 'Hocus Pocus', and Halloween Town (the first movie)._


	4. Chapter 3

Dedication to:  
_**Bhavana331**_—I'm so sorry! So, people, Bhavana here is writing an amazing SWAC Halloween story also, and _SHE'S _the one who mentioned having Murphy in her story first when we were exchanging our plot ideas to avoid confusion. So anyone who said "Oh man, that's so cool! You may be the first ever person to include Murphy!" that's not me, that's all HER! So Bhavana, you should take some of my reviews, haha. And I apologize for not crediting you in the last chapter when I first brought out Murphy into the story!

**Kylie Robbins** because her PMs from a long time ago of what her and her dad does sparked the 'cue the dead dog' line.

**Daseyrocks** because she made an amazing trailer (check the link from the last chapter) and her scene of where Sonny jumps on Chad kinda influenced the actions I wrote for when Sonny actually does save Chad in this chapter!

**Music-Freak Sonny** for editing a scene here. You go, girl!

And most importantly, _**sonnycentral**_—because she's amazing and has one of the biggest hearts I have ever known and has the strength to pass any obstacle and don't you forget that!

The next update, Chapter 4 will have a poll included with it where YOU guys get to vote on who you think 'dun' it! WOW…this chapter was 10 pages long, single-spaced, my longest ever chapter! **Thanks to everyone who's reviewed!**

Disclaimer: I don't own the Jason reference nor any SWAC…but the mystery and symbols, I do!

* * *

With countless of creepy crawling insects still at home in the girls' dressing room, the girls had to evacuate for a while until the studio crew had taken out every last bug and wiped out the squished ones. Sonny, with nothing to do and rehearsal postponed until this _ghost _frenzy was solved, sat comfortably in her Sherlock attire, hiding under her purple Marmi—_the Blanket with Arms_ as she watched a horror movie in the dark Prop House.

Suddenly, out of the corner of her eye, she saw someone move beside her. "Guess who?" a male's voice chirped as he covered Sonny's eyes, who—in turn, screamed, "_THE GHOST!" _grabbing his hands, flipping him over so the person tumbled upside-down into the sofa next to Sonny.

"Ow," moaned Chad. "My lumbago…" Sonny bit her lip as she tried helping Chad from his tangled position.  
"I'm _sorry!" _she timidly whined.

Chad took a breath, easing into a comfortable seat between Sonny and the sofa arm—_comfortable_ meaning 'brushing Sonny on the side'. "Remind me to _never _be by you if we're ever in a haunted house together."

Sonny wrinkled her nose and turned towards Chad. "Why would I even go to a haunted house with _you?"  
_Chad nodded. "_Good point."  
_  
The two stared at the bright screen ahead of them, watching the movie like any two friends would. Chad's eyes slowly looked over at Sonny, to find her wrapped in a weird sort of blanket with her hands peeking out.  
"What the _heck _are you wearing?" his eyes widened as he observed the strange product.  
"My Marmi—_the Blanket with Arms," _she stated casually, too distracted by the movie; Chad rolled his eyes at her stupid cuteness.

"Ok then…what are we even _watching_?" Chad narrowed his eyes as he watched the actors on screen cautiously climb up the shadowed stairs.  
"A scary movie," eagerly grinned Sonny as Chad reached over to the bowl of caramel popcorn she carried in her lap and took some. "This movie is _so _intense, no one knows what's gonna happen next!"  
"Huh," Chad crammed the handful of popcorn into his mouth. "_Cue the dead dog_," he plainly stated.

As if on cue, screams erupted from the TV screen as the actors witnessed their beloved white Westie in a pool of dark thick blood. Sonny jumped, watching Chad, carrying a face full of fascination and fear

"_How'dju know that?" _she spun towards him in shock. "You watched this before?"

Chad snorted. "_Pfft_, oh no. All "horror" movies have the same _stupid_ plot, same techniques—even the same _murderer, _for crying out loud," he shrugged with a proud arrogant smug on his lips. "I mean—who is this _Jason _guy?" he continued blaspheming as he took another handful of caramel popcorn, shoving it all into his mouth. "It's all the same: They go upstairs, always finding a dead dog, _always_. What a cheesy _movie_," he retorted as he glanced around, spying the bowl of goodness on the side-table near the couch.  
"Ooh, candy!" He childishly grinned, taking the whole bowl.  
"_He-ey_!" Sonny whined, yanking the bowl away from him just when he was able to take a single candy out. "Get your own," she pouted.

Chad blankly looked at her, shaking the wrapped candy in his fingers. "I just _did, ahk!"_ he lamely shrugged, making a face. He continued his bashing on the movie. "Just like Halloween—it's all fake," he smirked.

Inside, Sonny fervently shook with passion when she slowly sarcastically smiled. "Oh, so even though you screamed like a _whale_ last night, you knew the ghost was fake," she nodded, pursing her lips.  
Chad's smiled tightened uneasily. "I never said that," he quickly defended himself when he analyzed Sonny's retort. "And I do _not _scream like a ...a _whale!_"  
"No, you _blubber_ like one," Sonny chuckled.

Chad shook his head—not being able to let go of the topic. "So you believe in Halloween," he stated curiously, challenging her.  
"Chad," Sonny stared ahead at the screen, which now glowed an eerie blue hue as the actors searched around the outside pool at night. "Halloween is part of the USA tradition. Why not?"

Chad snorted, straining a sarcastic smile. "_Yeah..._if you're a member of the _Union of Small-Agers_," he hooted, shrugging. "Don't tell me you still go out trick-or-treating? _No _one _does_ that anymore," he innocently patted her head, "_especially_ respected and amazing actors in Hollywood," Chad explained chortling, grinning at himself. "Like me."

With a cool look plastered on her face, Sonny spun towards Chad who reached over again, grabbing a handful of popcorn.  
"Well _I _still do," she said proudly.  
Again, Chad crammed the snack into his mouth, knowing beforehand her answer, muttering under his breath as he watched the TV, "_I rest my case..."_

To regain his attention back, Sonny slapped his arm, then curtly paused the movie—a ghoulish atmosphere frozen on the screen; the lack of sound added more tension.  
"_Hey," _he whined as he watched Sonny furiously get up and head over to the dim-lighted island bar further back in the Prop House, muttering unintelligibly of "like me" or "who does he think he is". Chad followed.

"So I heard you came to our set? You missed me?" he smiled with sappy conceitedness that could make butter melt, having it boil in anger, as it did with Sonny when he stood beside her, watching her dump more caramel popcorn into the bowl.  
"No, I went to talk to your _leading lady_ for her account of what happened last night," she fumed, growing tired of Chad's ego by the minute. This was starting to become one of Sonny's most annoying Halloween _ever._

_Scratch that._ Spying Chad's sneaky hand ever so slightly push the bowl away so caramel goodness began missing into it and pouring onto the floor, Sonny shook in anger. _**This **__was _the most_ annoying Halloween ever._

Jerking the bowl away, Sonny glared at the smug boy as she now walked away from the bar. "You..._you...! _You are_ unbelievable!" _she emphasized her last word as if pronunciation would make the message get inside the boy's head.  
Loving to toy with her negative emotions, Chad inertly followed suit, arrogantly impressed.  
"Sonny, you're such a diva," Chad noted as the two stopped a couple of feet near the sofa on their left.

"And you're a...a..." Sonny, though, paid no attention to finish her insult. Readjusting her darkened eyes, she caught movement in the dark, her ears picking up on a fast _whoosh _from behind the young man.

"_Duck,"_ Sonny's voice was a mere whisper, becoming caught in her throat as she stood frozen watching.

Chad dramatically gasped, his hand swinging to his heart. "That's _low!" _

"_No, I mean_ _**DUCK**__!" _she screamed, doing the only thing she could think of to a rival whom she (was supposed to) despised—throw herself on top of him to get him to move out of harm's way. In shock, Chad's eyes grew wide, holding on to Sonny when he fell, thus having Sonny fall with him, into him as they landed on the hardwood floor.  
_Smack. _

A bit dazed by the event, Chad helped Sonny up to her feet as if the longer they stayed down, the more vulnerable they were; their past quarrel momentarily was out of mind. "You alright?"  
"Y-_yeah_. Thanks," she shook, holding Chad for support.  
Chad cautiously looked towards where he heard the collision when the faint traces of a ladder illuminated until the kitchen's dim lights. "Where'd that _ladder_ come from!?"

Sonny then realized there was more light than there should had been—finding her answer above. "Must've come from the room upstairs." Chad blankly looked at her to continue. She then comically widely grinned, shrugging with a full beam on her lips, trying to jog his memory.  
"_We never really fixed that_ hole _we made when you intruded into our Prop House_! You remember that?" Chad glared her, quiet _well _remembering how the other four Randoms marked their revenge by tossing bowling pins, pink heels and trash disposal at him. Quite well did he remember his shrieks of terror when the nasty rat climbed on his leg.

"_Vaguely," _he calmly stated to her, his eyes narrowed on her.

But Sonny was moving on past memories, trying to search for all clues. "I wonder how that ladder fell?" she muttered to herself. "Did it just slip and fall or did someone _mean _to hurt us?"

It then dawned on Chad. "Someone wants to _kill_ me!"  
As Sonny cautiously walked around the ladder, she heard a soft crunch underneath her feet. She bent down to find the rare royal passion flower—not being very rare _these days. _"Look. Hey! It's the same flower!"  
"Is it my _hair_!? They _must _be after my beauty secrets!" Chad shuddered.  
"But wait..." she felt a metal print on the side of the ladder.  
"I'm a _marked man_!" he sobbed.

"Chad! _Look_!" Troubled and down-cast, Chad walked towards Sonny, reading where she pointed to on the ladder.

"_Property of Rodnoc Studio,_ that's weird. What's _their _stuff doing here?" Sonny turn to Chad in surprise that _Chad _of all folks would know something she didn't. Of course, he was knowledgeable in the film industry.

"What?"  
"Well, that's Condor Studio's rival company," he shrugged as if it were the oldest rumor on the planet, with no jazz, no spice. "They hate us _so_ much," he rolled his eyes as he smiled.

"Are they competition?" Chad looked at Sonny as if she were an idiot when his lips split into a half-smile, then merging into full-blown hysterics as he had to shut his eyes from the power of the laughter.

It wasn't until he peeked through his tears of joy finding Sonny in her same blank-expression state.  
"You were _serious_?" his face fell. "Those _wanna-bees_ are such _idiots_—that's _why_ they're jealous. We beat them at _everything_—_looks, _fame, rating…but for some reason, not money-wise. My opinion—I'd say it's because their drama and comedy people are…_friends,_" he made a face full of disgust.

Sonny lightly frowned in confusion as to what he said before his last sentence. "What do you mean _money-wise?" _

Chad shrugged. "They all come from rich families so they're able to have the _latest _technology and what-not for themselves. But they never seem to use that money to help their _shows," _Chad rolled his eyes. He coolly looked at Sonny. "Even their _comedy_ cast is jealous of you—" he caught himself before addressing how no one was as pretty and funny as Sonny. "—you _guys_, not in terms of comedy, just…" he was lost for words. "…y-you guys are more..._attractive_," he bit his tongue and flushed. "_I mean photogenic_! I mean—!"

As Chad mentally kicked himself, unable to meet Sonny's blush, Sonny quickly resumed thinking about the current happenings.  
"I wonder why that was up there?" she muttered, looking down between the ladder and the opening above before she grinned. "_Another clue for Detective Munroe! _I'm goin' up there to find clues!" Chad rolled his eyes at her as he propped the ladder up, holding it steady as Sonny climbed it.

Her delicate footsteps were about the only soothing sounds in the quiet Prop House. Sonny looked around the room—it was all cleared out, all clean, as if no one had been in the room since the Randoms had left all those months ago. Before long, Chad heard her mumble from above. "I don't see anyone." As Sonny's nose wrinkled at the thought of not finding any fresh clues, she started to hearing the movie below playing, its scary music echoing about the air.

"Chad, don't start the movie without me," she called below, slowly climbing down the ladder. As she landed, she faced Chad to find him wide-eyed. "You look like you've seen a ghost," she joked.  
"Just _about!" _he squeaked, pointing in front of him towards the TV. As the scenes in the movie were dark, nothing appealed to Sonny as unusual.  
Chad fearfully shook his head. "I never turned that on."

_That's _when Sonny's color drained out from her skin. As they watched the movie, suddenly the scenes became brighter, illuminating something so frightful, so unimaginative that all they could do was gasp—their voices clogged in their windpipes to be able to scream. Painted on the TV screen, in the same think blood-like substance used on Portlyn's mirror was written:

"_**LEAVE NOW, YOU CONDOR STARS OR YOU SHALL BE HUNTED LIKE THE BIRD BRAINS YOU ARE!" **_  
—_**JAMES ESSER  
**__**(**_A/N: Capslock off)

In fear, Sonny huddled against Chad, who in turn grabbed her hand for comfort. Just then, a quiet rattling from the Prop House door was heard—the kind of quiet in which the whole room echoed the sound to make it more confrontational, more belligerent and demonic than a doorknob rattling could be. The door slammed open to reveal…

"_AHHHHH!" _the couple screamed, finding none other than Zora, who, in defense, screamed.  
"_Ahhhhhh!" _The little girl quickly turned on the light to see who exactly she was screaming with. The girl stared at the two—the two stared at the couple.

"_AHHH!" _Zora shrieked again even louder, quickly closing her eyes.

"Zora! _Zora_, It's just _us!" _Sonny hastily explained.  
"But you guys were _making out_ and _that's _creepy!" the little Random squealed when she looked around finding all the mess made. "_Whoa-ho-hoo! _What happened _here?" _her raspy voice quirked in excitement.  
Sonny and Chad curtly dropped their heads, finding themselves in a tight position, wrapped around each other in fear when the hastily let go, wide-eyed and looking about as if nothing happened.

"N-no, we were just scared. We almost got hit by a ladder and now there's this message on the TV!" Sonny explained, pointing the way for Zora to see.

Zora calmly walked towards the TV, reading the message when she grabbed her camera in her pocket.  
The three moved in towards the large screen, looking for anything else unusual that might clue them in on how the message was posted up there without their knowing. As Sonny glanced around, a certain glimmer caught her eye on the TV—a marking of some sort on the edges of the TV, in the same red product. As she looked closer, her heart swelled with excitement.  
"You guys, there's a finger print!"

"What?" Chad was taken aback, thinking what kind of ghost left fingerprints; he and Zora neared towards Sonny.  
"Whoever wrote the message probably held the edge of the TV for support…" it then dawned on Sonny. "You guys, that means the ghost's not _real!" _In anxious exhilaration, she turned over to Zora. _"_Do you think you could get a copy of this with tape and powder to find the DNA on here?"

Zora blatantly looked at the brunette. "I'm only _eleven! _Not a _forensic scientist!" _she hissed._  
"_Well we know you're smart enough to be one," Sonny shrugged cutely as Zora turned over. Chad snorted.  
"It's a sad fact for a _TV show_ when the youngest person is the smartest one here," he smirked, seeing the two girls throwing him daggers with their eyes.

"I have a _name_?" Zora retorted, with her eyes widened.  
Chad waved her statement and fury away. "Yeah, but that'd take effort and interest, Zora."

Slowly, the girls tried containing their laughter. Chad, unfortunately, could not understand what was so amusing. "What!"

Sonny shook with laughter when she saw something at the end of the threat. Memory jogged as she remembered seeing this same symbol in Portlyn's mirror last night (**A/N: Find the 'Enigma of the ghost' link on my profile, or copy and paste the link: ****http :// img**** . photobucket . com / albums / v479 / talukderr / ghosttrademark . jpg)**. Needing to know if the red thing the message was written was actual blood, Sonny squeezed her eyes tight, having her finger slowly touch it—the substance _jiggled. _In amazement, Sonny began poking it—noticing how the mark kept its shape, as if it were plastic or rubber. With a brilliant thought, Sonny slowly began to peel the "symbol" off. Analyzing it, she suddenly felt dizzy from what she uncovered—on the symbol were an S and an R…_backwards_…

"S…R…_S-R_…_SR_….es-are…._Esser_?" it dawn on her that this mystery was becoming more and more complex now. She looked beside her, finding Zora busy attending to the ladder. "Chad," Sonny's voice shook. "Come here."

Briskly, he came, a bit annoyed with the prankster who was trying to scare everyone. "It says 'SR,'" Sonny pointed out. "…as in"  
"Esser?" Chad gaped, looking in awe at the little bloody-red rubber symbol on Sonny's soft palm.  
"Yeah," she slowly looked up at him, finding fear in Chad's soft gray-blue eyes.  
"But…_it can't be_…" he whispered. "You just said so yourself that it wasn't a _ghost_!" his whisper began to merge into a whine.  
"I know…" Sonny bit her lip. "It doesn't make sense. It's like there's…there's _two_ mysteries here instead of one or something…"

This quickly dropped Chad's fear, his ego now boosting as he dropped his head to the side impatiently. "Why can't you just assume it was the ghost and leave it at _that_?" he haughtily moaned.  
Sonny sighed, wanting to be able to reason with him. "Oh, c'mon. Didn't _you_ ever want to solve a mystery when you were little?"  
Chad's conceited strained smile returned. "No, no, I had a _life!"  
_With Sonny taking a deep breath to control her anger, Zora piped up from behind them.  
"Can't you just leave us alone, Chad?" Zora complained.

Chad pursued his lips. "Yeah, well why don't _you_ go leave with your _name-I-can-never-remember_, Zora," Chad gave her a stone glare.

"Fine," Zora abruptly smiled as she shrugged, thinking how in the _world _could this idiot's show be beating theirs.  
"Fine."  
Sonny interceded with a toothy smile. "_Good_! Cuz…cuz that's kinda um…my and Chad's fight," she awkwardly scratched her ear as she dryly chuckled.  
"Fine," Zora again remarked. She then remembered something. "I only came here to tell you that one—Tawni's missing and two—Who was that _girl_ who just ran out of this room?"

_~*~Commercial Break~*~_

As Zora left, Sonny shivered, wondering what had happened to their blond cast mate. _And who was this mysterious girl? Was she the one who wrote the message on the screen? And if she did, how could see have dropped the ladder on them that quick?  
_  
Chad's boisterous quickly interrupted her chain of thoughts as he stood beside her near lime green fuzzy couch. "Catch ya later, _Sherlock_. Have fun _shrieking _at those cheesy lines," he mused as Sonny's heart leapt, feeling a tad bit insecure that she would be left alone now. But it was either _that_ or be left with Chad's _ego_…she choose the safer way for her mentality.

"_Bye, _Chad," she stated, pushing the heartthrob out the door. With him gone, she then looked both sides, turned the lights off, sprinting into the security of her Marmi—_the Blanket with Arms. _The currently mystery was soon forgotten as she began to become enticed into the horror of the movie. Violins echoed with a disharmonic melody from the screen when Chad swung back in, causing Sonny to jump, shaken.

"According to _that _sound, the killer's about to come," he smirked.  
The two watched when unbelievably, a masked figure appeared on the little girl's mirror, having her shriek and writhe instantaneously. The large smug on Chad's beaming face perturbed Sonny.

"_Told ya so_," he mysteriously stated before walking back out. With fear into her system, Sonny's head repeatedly continued looking back and forth between where Chad had just left and the screen, snuggling into her Marmi—_the Blanket with Arms_, finding her tension eased as she continued cramming more caramel popcorn into her mouth.

~*~

Outside, the wind curdled, shrieking through the trees, the golden and dying green leaves forming terrorizing whirlwinds as if they took part of a cult—asking for trouble, asking for fear, for the solitude of the night, the unknown. Inside the Commissary, the four Randoms sat quietly at their table, a bit in mourning for the lack of the fifth Random.

"Did you guys hear what happened to Tawni?" Zora mumbled.  
Nico nodded solemnly. "Yeah man...that's _crazy_. It's starting to get _dangerous _now."

A few more uncomfortable silent minutes passed with everyone deep in their own thoughts when Zora blurted out, "You guys, I think Dakota's the ghost!"  
The group looked at her before they began to crack a smile.

"Yeah right," Grady bemused. "Dakota _Condor?"  
"_I _saw _her with my own _eyes!" _Zora pressed on. "With the same _bugs!"  
_  
Nico shrugged. _"_Then what would be her motive? That she _hates_ us?"

Sonny added to Nico's defense. "But then why would she attack Chad and not kidnap him?"

Grady continued, narrowing his eyes in confusion. "Yeah, and how's a little girl supposed to get away with all of this?"  
Nico ended their argument. "And why would she try to ruin her daddy's business—?" Easily seeing she had the lower end of the stick, Zora grumbled. "Oh-_kay, _OK, I _get _it!"

Sonny quietly tapped her fingernails, with her head on her fist, contemplating. "Before Tawni was gone, she told me how she saw Josh the mail guy with those same purple flowers."  
Zora wrinkled _her _nose. "But what would be _his _motive?"

Nico excitedly set down the latest Tween Weekly issue, fidgeting. "Man, if _anyone's_ a suspect, it's Murphy."

"_Why __are you talking about me?!_" The security guard snapped nasally as he came out of no-where from behind the gang, squatting down over their heads.

"M-_Murphy," _Grady breathlessly smiled, thinking of an excuse. "W-we were just...we were just—" the blond boy stumbled fearfully.  
Nico took over for him pal. "What were _you _doing in Condor's office?" he stated, wanting answers.  
Sensing the kids didn't actually do _anything _this time, Murphy gradually straightened back up. "He called me in to talk," he proudly claimed.  
The boys snorted. "Why would _Condor _want to talk to _you?"_Nico demanded.__

"Yeah! You're just a lousy _pizza_-_stealin'_ security guard!" Grady's arm scribbled back and forth as he threw out his sentence as he comically scorned the man.  
"_Cuz some _people respect_ security guards!" _Murphy snapped, roaring his head off to the point that the boys instantly cowered back into their seats.

"_Thank you, _Murphy!" Sonny quickly grinned, trying to prevent Nico and Grady going to Studio-jail soon. "Here's a nickel for your patience," she uneasily beamed.  
Murphy's eyes gleam as he pinched the 5 cents out of her fingers. "I do love my nickels," he cackled, driving the coin into his pocket as he shiftily walked away.

The Randoms curiously watched his leave.  
"_Nah_, I don't think he did it," Zora randomly stated.

"Maybe all three o'them are in cahoots," Nico pointed the opinion out.  
"Or _maybe_," Sonny jumped up, pounding her fist as her face darkened, "you two are in co-cahoots _ca-hootinizing_ with the _cahooters_!" She then laughed, her hands clamped together. "Aha! Just _kidding_!" she dryly chortled, then sitting back down in embarrassment at the weird looks rewarded to her.

"Well," Sonny said after a few more awkward silences continued. "I think the only way to solve this mystery is if I go to where this all started—_James Esser's room, _otherwise known as _Studio 13," _she mysteriously whispered playfully.  
She then grinned excitedly. "I'm gonna go there later tonight! Anyone wanna come with?"

The other Randoms looked at one another, their expressions unreadable.

"Yeah, you on yo' _own_, _sista_," Nico retorted with a shaken voice.  
With a slight pout, Sonny didn't realize when the cast of MacKenzie Falls walked in, resorting to their own table.  
"_Hey. _Look at that—" Zora quirked, motioning towards the rivals. As the Randoms turned, they shuddered as they saw some of the actors in bandages, some in casts, others walking stiffly on crutches—Chad was about the only one in good shape, though shaken and jumpy.

"Yeah, Drama City's now _Trauma __Central_," the guys joked. Suddenly, Sonny felt her eyes become drawn to the MacKenzie actor, locking their glances to one another when Chad's glance dropped down.

"I have to go talk to Chad," Sonny said absentmindedly, as if she were bewitched. Slowly getting up, she wondered why she was suddenly urged to talk to this jerk when she realized she needed answers.

"_That_ _figures_," Zora hazily stated. Sonny was taken aback.

"What?"

Grady explained a look of awe on his face. "You haven't realized how _close _you and Chad are becoming?"  
Sonny quaintly looked at her, who looked at her back before she burst into hysteric laughter. "_Hahaha! AHHH-Hahahaha!" _She soon wiped a tear, finding the whole cafeteria now watching her.

She leaned in towards her friends, as so no one would hear what she would say. "Chad Dylan Cooper and I are _not _close," she casually said when her mood dropped a little. "We're rivals…" She then shook away the sadness. "And I need to talk to _Portlyn_ but seeing as she's not here, Chad's the next best bet."

Nico shrugged. "I _still_ say you and those Falls are getting close."

"_Am not_," Sonny curtly argued like a little girl before she grinned. "_Now I'm gonna go invite Portlyn to come trick-or-treating with us_!"

Seeing that the Falls cast had just left, she merrily skipped over towards the exit when Nico called over. "Don't forget to wear your costume then. We're leaving after you're done checkin' out Studio 13."

Sonny's bubbly mood then enlarged. "Alrighty!" Before long, she was gone, leaving the Randoms back to square one as they continued thinking about who the _ghost _was.

_Murphy? Josh? Dakota? Only time will tell…_


	5. Chapter 4

Just a warning—I have a College Physics exam on the 27th of this month…so the chapter 5 update may have to be after that date, with chapter 6 still falling on Halloween Day, only because I really want that whole of the exam to be FF-free, no-update, studious study time. Please understand.

And please check out 'Halloween Special: Trick or Greet'—THE ICON made by the wonderful _**MusicFreak-Sonny**_! You guys, THIS is impressive—as impressive as _**daseyrocks**_' trailer she made for this story! Look at it here: http: // smg . photobucket . com / albums / v479 / talukderr / ?action=view¤t;= or find it in my profile. You guys, I'm like in forever in debt to you!!!!

Dedications to: **Sonnycentral**, the two lovely ladies above, and **Bhavana331** for being a great competition for my story!

Thanks to the people, leaving this story a marvelous 106 reviews! I'll personally name every reviewer, subscriber and alerter on Halloween Night...Mwhahaha...

Also, a special shout-out to **Zoe-zora**, who I WISH would make an account so I could leave her wonderful responses to her reviews because I love them so! And a message to Zoe-Zora: Haha, yeah the 'dun-dun-DUN!" went through my mind at Sonny's line too, haha. But guess what? I incorporated that into THIS chapter--so you get credit for it!!!

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, show, nor Mr. Clooney, nor the line from the JONAS episode, and speaking of which—  
PS: The Halloween JONAS episode was freakishly scarily awesome!!!

* * *

After having just left the Random table to find Chad, Sonny just then spotted Chad's figure walking further from her, having her dash to reach his pace.

The boy heard the fast steps behind him, wondering who was running but heed no attention. Not unless it had something to do with the ghost, which—in truth—he was now really freaked out by.  
"Hey Chad, have you seen Portlyn?" Sonny drew in her breath, clutching at her sides from running so fast as to not miss him. Chad blankly looked up from his script to find Sonny asking him a question. He then narrowed his eyes, wondering who Sonny was talking about when it dawned on him.

"Sonny," he closed his eyes in embarrassment. "One: You do know that's her _character's _name, right? And _dos: why?" _his eyebrows crinkled in thought.

Sonny shrugged, in the way that Chad always found as _stupid cute. "_Either way, we wanted to invite her to go trick-or-treating with us—" she beamed with her stupid-cute-shrug.  
Chad's heart stopped. "—she hates the carbs," he abruptly interrupted.

Sonny frowned, bothered that Chad would actually take interest than just tell her where to find the girl. "Let me just talk to her, alright? I have to ask her a few more questions about the ghost."  
But Sonny's scowl quickly lightened as Chad's pale eyes shown what she had feared.

"I…I don't know where she is," he softly muttered, tension fixed into his voice.

Sonny pursed her lips childishly. "Well where'd she _go_?"

Chad sighed, a bit annoyed at the moment. "Look, I don't _know, _ok? She told our producer on the phone that she'd be gone for a couple of days," he waved his arm aimlessly around before he remembered something. "_Sounded_ happy though," he mumbled.  
Sonny gasped. "Tawni did the same thing!"

Chad and Sonny continued walking side-by-side throughout the hallways that joined Stage 2 and 3 together. "If they'll come back, I don't see what the problem is, so I really couldn't care less," Chad shrugged.  
Sonny paced on silently, wondering why their friends were going missing when she connected it to something.  
"I wonder if this is anything similar to how Esser's _love _went missing when he died!" she excited over, proud of her cleverness when Chad scoffed, glaring at the girl.  
"Sonny, just _stop, _alright? Someone hates us and is trying to scare us—that's all. This has nothing to do with what happened back then!" he argued. "Why should we care about what happened back then? It won't _do_ us any good," he tried calming down though his smile was just as strained.

Sonny shook her head, tired of Chad's charade for being a rude, insolent, immature guy. At times like these, she forgot about her crush on him.

"You know, learning some history would do _you_ some _good!" _she protested.  
"_Yeah?_" Chad tilted his head in a light sneer. "_How?"  
_Sonny tried thinking of something quick. "W-well, y-you'd actually ... _respect _what people before you did and all their struggles! You wouldn't be such a—"  
But Chad never found out what he could had been (and luckily he hadn't) when Sonny crashed into a mild elderly lady, having all her paperwork in a manilla folder fall and sprawl about.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" Sonny pleaded as she dropped to her knees to help the woman out; Chad rolled his eyes, arms crossed over his chest as he looked over the two females below.  
"Nothing to worry about, dear," the woman's voice quivered as she gave Sonny a rosy heart-warming smile. The lady seemed to be in her 70's but still looked quite as fit and stylish as ever. Quickly, Sonny picked up the papers, her face still flushed from embarrassment when her eyes widen: In her hand were documents of fire insurance. The girl then looked up towards the lady to wonder why she would have fire insurance...but decided not to ask the woman about it and cheerily smiled at her before picking up more papers. The next one her shifty eyes glanced upon was a contract...

The woman could had known Sonny was looking through her stuff, or may have very well been just impatient as she hald her hand open to take the paperworks from Sonny. As fast as she could, Sonny's face rose a little bit as her eyes tried scanning the contract, reading phrases like "by the end of the month," " if the studio has had the loss of one-fourth of their..." "the studio will rightfully go to [insert name]." Before the paper had left her clutch, Sonny was _just _able to catch sight of a stamp near the bottom of the page. Near a signature, a trademark clearly seen was stamped in red-like wax. (to view, copy and paste http :// img . photobucket . com / albums / v479 / talukderr / mj . jpg but without the spaces).  
Both ladies stood up, eying each other.  
"Thank you, my dear," the elderly woman regally nodded as she calmly walked away.  
Chad and Sonny watched the woman turn a corner, before Sonny toothily-grinned.  
"I think that was Ms. Rodnoc!"  
"What gives you _that _idea?"  
Sonny shrugged."Because I saw MJ Rodnoc on her papers…"  
Chad's head dropped. "_Oh..."  
"Awh, she seems nice!" _She smiled, turning towards Chad. In turn, Chad couldn't help but lightly chuckle at the girl, before he composed himself, snorting. "Of course she does. She's the exact _opposite_ of Condor—" he explained when Sonny gaped.  
"Chad," her voice suddenly became muted. "she had papers of buying a studio."  
The heartthrob's eyebrows narrowed speedily. "Ours?"  
"I'm not sure..." Sonny muttered, feeling a sense of confusion over the many clues and lack of answers.

Momentarily, the two walked, somehow finding themselves arguing again when Sonny's eyes were drawn to a girl she had never seen before, making her way over to them. She watched as the new girl approached Chad, carrying an even more-conceited look, if there could be any, that would beat Chad's _any day._

"Hello..._B.C.D." _the almost-girl-clone-of-Chad sneered, her voice as high as a pixie. For some reason, this girl reminded Sonny as one of the MacKenzie Falls characters—Penelope, full of herself and as dramatic.

Sonny repeatedly glanced back and forth between the two in awe when she snorted in laughter, lightly smacking the young woman's shoulder. "_Ha! _Good one!"

The Penelope-like girl grimaced where Sonny had just playfully hit her, her hand exaggerating as she smoothed out the wrinkles on her shoulder. Sonny noticed when she gave a peek towards Chad, that he was throwing glare left and right at Sonny, who awkwardly look down from being scorned. Chad positioned his glower back to the newcomer.

"It's _C.D.C.," _he corrected coldly. "And what are _you _doing here, _Camilla Devonne Clooney?_"  
"Heard you guys'll be out of business soon," the girl innocently shrugged, though her composure was anything besides that.  
"'Thought you guys were already _out _of business," Chad's smile strained.  
The mask fell of the studio rival's face. "We have a hundred thousand viewers—the minimum to keep us going."  
"What, are they all the stars' _mommy and daddies_? Your dad..._Batman," _Chad sarcastically smiled, alluding to the fact that Mr. Clooney once used to be Bruce Wayne, "can't save your show—no matter _how_ many fans _he _has," Chad said snootily, mocking in a baby-voice.  
"You just watch out," the girl spat in her high pixie-like voice. "There's gonna be another CDC here soon and it won't be _you_!"  
The two watched as the Rodnoc star haughtily spun on her heels, strutting away.

Sonny nodded, beaming. "_She seems nice too_!" The expression on Chad's face as he looked at Sonny was priceless—as if he couldn't believe he had fallen in love with this loopy gal—he then rolled his eyes.  
The two continued walking towards who-knew-where when Sonny tried lightening up the down-cast mood of Chad's.  
"I bet if you guys were in a competition with your egos, yours would be _bigger?" _Sonny joked encouragingly.  
"_Uh-huh_," Chad grunted. Sonny sighed.  
"Chad, then at least help me with this mystery!" Sonny whined as they stopped in their tracks.  
"This again? _Seriously!?" _Chad irritated. "Why should I care about some _dumb_ mystery?"  
Sonny sadly looked at Chad. "Because it would help give answers to us and maybe even save some people," she stated strongly.  
Chad snorted defiantly. "Sure."

Sonny then changed the course of her plan. Hopefully she could get through Chad better if she could offer him something he could relate to. "Look, if I had as big an ego as yours, I'd do it for at _least_ the attention," she shrugged, quietly keeping an eye on Chad's reaction as she kept her smirk hidden.  
"Attention?" Chad perked up as Sonny kept her cool.  
"Yeah—being not only the…" _Oh no, _she thought. _She had to say it. But she couldn't "_the…" she would have to make some sacrifices if she wanted Chad to help her_, "__greatest," _she seethed in difficultly, "actor but also known as the _bravest _actor of our generation by defeating this ghost? How cool would _that _be?"  
Chad pursed his lips, debating the thought. "We'll see…" Chad mumbled like a little boy, his eyes unseen as he tilted his head curiously.

_This _of course, was a mark of achievement for Sonny. "_Great!" _she clapped, her bubbly demeanor back on. The two had now stopped at a marker in the floor where the two stages separated at, the rightful actor on their field. "Because I figured that if I'm going to find the clues that'll solve this mystery, then it'll be in James Esser's room," Sonny's words meshed as she profusely explained, her words as a whirlwind of sound. "So I'm going there tonight—" Chad suddenly interrupted her.  
"See ya, Monroe," he curtly stated, walking away.  
As Sonny watched Chad leave, she pouted for being unable to finish her explanation, when she beamed again, excited to go to Studio 13 soon.

The girl left momentarily—the hallways were silent, empty. But movement came from a certain shadowed area near where the two were just talking. And if you looked really closely, you could find the traces of someone malevolently smiling, having eavesdropped on Sonny's future plans. Nothing would ruin the suspect's plan..._nothing._

~*~

"_Yes_!" cried Grady, wearing a face mask as the two friends performed on a table in an eerily-lit Prop House that glowed goblin green and cackling black—it was as if the two were creating Frankenstein. Their Candy Multiplier Machine was currently sputtering out whizzing sound, violently shaking, with many wires attached to it. "It's alive! It's _alive! It's—_"

The machine's whirring died down, as it emitted a puff of smoke.  
Nico's face dropped, his arms flailing in protest. "It's dead! _Man_!"  
With a long face, Grady swung his feet back and forth in disappointment. "The ghost messed it up! He _killed _it!"  
"_Yeah…" _Nico nodded in agreement. "Blame it on the _ghost!_"  
The two gave up their plan for the time-being, chilling as they walked over to the side of the 'operating table'.  
"I mean," continued Nico swinging his fedora hat, wearing his vampire costume still. Grady, meanwhile, was dressed in the lower-half of a horse, away from his _Zora-stein _costume. "The ghost takes Tawni, and then Zora, and now our _Candy Machine too!_?"  
Grady eagerly shake Nico in fear, his eyes widened comically. "We are working with a _genius!" _  
At the mention of a ghost, Grady froze, Nico's shirt still in his clutches when the guys felt a blast of chilled icy air dance and bite their skin. The glowing seaweed green lights flickered on on and off—when they died out. Severely quaking in their shows, the two slowly looked up...

...to find a ghastly twisted wan face, locking glances with eyes as black as ice, as black as darkness on a moonless night. The ghost moaned softly, as if in pain, but his moan soon accumulated into a raging roar.  
"_AhhhHHHHHHHHhhhhhhh!!!" _the boys shrieked, jumping on each other when they ran screaming and tripping out of the darkened Prop House.

~*~

Nico and Grady had finally began to calm down, taking deep breaths as they walked throughout the hallways.  
Nico gasped in ragged breath. "We just went from a _kinda-_normal time to _paranormal!" _It wasn't until they two stopped at a hallway intersection that Grady once again stopped his pal—the spied shadows coming their way.  
"_He-ey_! Murphy's sneaking off to Condor's office again! And Josh too! And look—he still has those flowers!" the boys excited over as the crouched near a stack of props. The witnessed the men look equally shifty.  
Nico patted his friend to catch his attention. "But look, oooh, they're in for it now! Condor's comin'. Quick!"

"_AHA!" _The two jumped out, causing the security guard and the mail guy to jump and slip out a scream. "We caught you in the middle of…" the boys looked down at the plate in Murphy's hand. "Eatin' _cookies_?"

Condor just then turned a corner and the boys knew it was the perfect time to reveal who the ghost was. "Mr. Condor," Grady piped up when he saw Condor frowning at the situation, "sir, majesty... O' Supreme One," Nico fearfully shook his head along with a scared Grady. "Murphy, Josh and your _daughter _are all the ghost!"  
Mr. Condor looked at Randoms dubiously. "My daughter is the ghost?"  
"Yo' daughter is _indeed _the _ghost_!" Nico shouted out spiritedly in a 'praise-the-lord'-like-fashion.  
"_You two will become ghost for even _thinking _that!"_Condor neared towards them, his hands in a strangulation-style when just then...__

"Hi Daddy!" Dakota beamed, appearing before the five men from Condor's office door entry.  
"_GHOST!" _Grady and Nico squealed, cowering behind Mr. Condor as little Dakota gave the evil eye to them before slipping a cheesy smiling to her father.  
"What's going on here?" The head of the studio murderously called out.  
"M-Murphy was about to break in to your office!" Nico called out when Murphy exploded at them.  
"Because I had to babysit Ms. Condor, _you nincompoops_!"; the boys let out apologetic murmurs.  
As this seemed to be the confession moment, Josh chipped in nervously. "A-and I had these bouquet for James Esser's memorial we're setting up tonight. That seemed good enough for the boys.

That left just one more suspect left.

"Dakota, then why'dja get scared when Zora found out about your bugs?" Nico narrowed his eyes. The girl, small in size, gave a forceful tug, jerking Grady and Nico to eye-level, having them squat down.  
"My daddy thinks I'm an angel!" she innocently grinned before she seethed. "_I don't want him knowing I ditched the Nickel-pincher to get some bugs!_"  
"But _why _where you catching bugs?" Nico exasperated, his hands emphasizing his tension.  
"I'm a little girl! That's what we _do!" _she harshly whispered. _  
"__Me too!" _Grady squealed, but then stopping when Dakota let out an evil growl.

Senior Condor eyed each and everyone there. "So is everything good?"  
Nico and Grady, in turn, looked at one another, not sure whether or not the three men before them could be cleared out from being suspects. Mumbling, the boys agreed.  
"Good," Mr. Condor straightened out his jacket, enforcing his strict tone. "Now..." he pulled out a can of gooey looking red substance—_the same as what was written for all the ghost's messages! _"I need to talk to the head of special effects to see if he can create..." he then eyed the boys suspiciously, "_something _for tonight..._what are you still standing here for? _Get to_ work!" _he roared, creating a mesh of confusion as everyone began bumping into each other to get out of their boss's way.

The Random boys continued walking. "You think one of 'em could still be the suspect?" Nico curiously asked his friend.  
"_Oh _yeah...and did you notice how _Condor _had the same thing used for the messages?" Grady pointed out.  
"And not only _that, _my friend, but did you happen to notice how the ghost _could _be made from a special effects team? And only _Condor _has the rights to give them the order for what to do."

Right when they headed into the Studio Commissary, Nico turned stunned. "Well _this _ain't good."  
Grady narrowed his eyes. "What'dya mean?"  
"Sonny's in trouble…" Nico turned to face the blond boy, a look of dread on his face.  
"Why?"  
"Cuz we don't know who we're dealing with."

~*~

Sonny had just silently wandered into the mysterious burnt _Studio 13_...which was actually _Stage 13 _but _Studio 13 _sounded creepier. Stuffy and hot from her costume, Sonny took off her sunflower headdress, her green-leaf mittens, and the long root shoe-covers towards the entry way. In case anything went wrong, the lack of heavy material would able her to escape more quickly. She checked to make sure she had everything: flashlight—_check, _the bag full of worn-out articles and Esser's awards, the little red stamp found on the messages and candy and pumpkin pie for when she got hungry—_check, check, and check._ Oh, and don't forget her notebook that she kept handy in her pocket.

Sonny looked around, waiting for her eyes to adjust to the darkness, her flashlight still buried in her bag when suddenly, she found piercing eyes in the dark shadows staring back at her—those eyes were not her own, fore there was no mirror...

_Sonny Monroe, usually unaffected by fear, screamed bloody-murder, her blood-curling shrieks echoing all throughout Studio 13._

_~*~Beware~*~_

_~*~Be scared~*~_

_Dun-dun-DUNNN!!!_

* * *

So—all the suspects are currently out. Who do _YOU _think dun it? Dakota? Murphy? Josh? The Rodnoc Actors? The head of Rodnoc Studio? Or even _Condor _himself!? Perhaps two of them are working together? Perhaps _ALL_ of them are working together? Don't forget to participate in the _**poll**_ in my profile! Also, state who you think 'dun' it in your review and why!


	6. Chapter 5

Yes, I know I wasn't supposed to update til after my exams on Tuesday but this was already written out last week--I just used my breaktimes during studying to edit this, that's all. I'll explain more at the end of my Authors notes.

_**Dedication: daseyrocks, sonnycentral, best with breadsticks, Kylie Robbins, MusicFreak-Sonny, **_and _**mindless scribbles**_for their lengthy long reviews. And actually, just to anyone who took the time to leave a nice juicy review in which they wrote who they thought the ghost was.

I was actually pretty impressed with how you guys think!

And _bravo _to _**MusicFreak-Sonny**_ for solving the mystery first—assembling all the clues, cutting down the suspects. She like OWNS this chapter now, haha! And the next 2, since originally this chapter and the next two were supposed to be one whole chapter, but that would had been about 20 pages long (The first two chapters of the original _chapter 5 _came out to be 15 pages).

Oh, and I've used an element from _**sonnycentral's **_Halloween fanfic …well, what _her _story is based off of. So if you know where her story is partially based from, you'll find an aspect of it here in mine!

Also, a _super _dedication to _**lifeisveryshortsoami**_ for writing a WONDERFUL Channy fanfic called "_C.O.W.: Crush of the Week_". Go read it, it's _insanely _amazing!

Tomorrow's the 4-month anniversary of my SWAC slumber party story! Woohoo!

_**Disclaimer: **_The quotes from "Suite Life with Zack and Cody", Scooby Doo, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban movie, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, The Wizard of Waverly Place movie, SWAC of course, and whatever you think relates to something you've seen before. Just please tell me because I'd like to give credit to the main source at least!

Haha, and I'm having some sort of a 'competition' for who can write the longest review PER CHAPTER by the Halloween/ the last chapter of this story. (Sorry _**mindless scribbles—**_you wrote for 2 chapters in one review but you still have time to make it up!) In the last chapter, THEN I'll address who "won". And for people who think they'll try to win by just _quoting _my own stuff—that won't work for this _competition (_Though I really do enjoy hearing which was your favorite parts!) So you can _**include **_the quotes, I just won't count it fully...yes people, I'll go all genius and actually try to devise and equation for how much quotes go for in terms of "points". And "rambles" goes the same way...maybe 1/3 points from the characters in each? Of course, I'll come up with the equation AFTER my physics exam.

I just found out this story is THE longest story in terms of 'SWAC mystery' fanfics go! EEP! Thanks to everyone who's reading! I'll personally address each and everyone at the last chapter.

* * *

MAN, leaving you guys long author notes feels good! I've been studying a total of 8 hours each day for these two days...and this chapter was written long before I studied, so don't worry—I'm studying. Just whenever I have my 30 minute breaks, I come and work on this!

**POLL STAT:** **Who do YOU think is the Ghost of James Esser? **

**The Ghost: 18%**

**Ms. Rodnoc: 18%**

**Josh:13%**

**The Rodnoc Studio Actors: 13%**

**Condor himself: 13%**

**Dakota: 9%**

**Two or more people above: 9%**

**Murphy: 1%**

Only 8 voters!? Awh! Oh well, it's too late to vote now! Let's see who's right!

* * *

With the piercing electric blue eyes meeting her own, Sonny Monroe screamed bloody murder, her eyes shut tight in fear. _**"AHHH!" **_  
And Sonny _would _have continued screaming had one blue eye _not_ gleam from the moonlight through the cracked windows of Studio 13. Through her mentality now containing murderous desires,she tried containing herself. Oh _yes,_ Sonny realized who it was.  
"_Chad!?"_

Chad, his smug on his lips promoting his cocky disposition, walked forward under the pale moonlight to reveal himself. "_Sonny_," he stated, smirk still on his lips when he cracked up laughing, pounding on his knee. "That was _hilarious!"  
_As the environment stirred ominous feelings as it was already, Sonny felt shocked, unable to make sense of anything.  
_"_What are _you _doing here?" she spat, the words bitter on her tongue.  
With hands pulling down on his pockets, Chad shrugged. "Doing what you said: Solve this puzzle for the attention."  
Sonny's eyebrows crinkled. "_Attention?"  
"_Yeah," Chad lamely nodded, not quite understanding what Sonny was on about.  
The girl pursed her lips, confused. "But I thought you don't _believe_ in all those stuff."  
Chad gave another plain shrug. "Well…I _don't,' _he hazily said with a look of boredom on his face when he brightened. "But that's why I'm gonna solve this mystery—so that I, _Chad Dylan Cooper, _will be known to be the most handsomest, hotteriest, dreamiest—"  
"And worst _spelliest?" _Sonny joked, grinning ear-to-ear. "Haha!"  
She was rewarded with a glare. "_And_ _bravest _throughout the land," Chad continued to muse, tugging arrogantly on his collar.

"K, your majesty," muttered Sonny.  
But her mutter echoed through the empty arena, which Chad clearly heard. " _Ah_," he playfully smirked breathily. "So you admit it?"  
Her eyes rolled as Sonny bit the inside of her lip in irritation when she thought of something—a tight smile on her lips.  
"I admit…" she grinned her retort, remembering their Prom, "that you danced with a _fish _and you _liked _it!"  
Chad's jaw dropped. "Take that back! You were a _mermaid!"_ he gasped dramatically.

As the two glared at each other, Sonny just then noticed that he too was in his Halloween pirate costume, wearing his puffy (sexy) white billowing shirt and baggy pirate-y trouser—she had a _very _hard time not to be caught staring in admiration of how Chad's see-through shirt worked his body. Shaking the thought away, she looked over to find where his black bandana and eye patch when her eyes caught them in the pile of where the rest of her '_Sonny-flower_' costume laid by the exit door.  
_  
_Remembering why she was here in the first place, she looked around the scene.  
"This whole place is charred down," she muttered, getting her flashlight to roam about. Silence awkwardly crossed between the two as Chad continued following Sonny into the darker parts of the studio.

"So what do you have figured out so far?" Chad asked lazily, wanting to provoke her, steal her work if he could. _Hey, _Sonny _has _changed him, but not _all _of him. With no answer, the Random pulled out her small handy notebook into Chad's hands. His eyes skimmed towards the first page:

_**Suspect:**_

**X**= no

**?X** = maybe not but still could

**(blank)**= maybe

**X_** MacKenzie Falls cast—wants attention

**?X** Josh—seen with bouquet of rare passion flowers that are Mr. Ghosty's trademark

**?X** Dakota—carried bugs that was released by Mr. Ghosty

**?X** Murphy—seen breaking in to Condor's office

**_****_**Rodnoc Studio actors—hates us

**__**Ms. Rodnoc—hates us too, but nice! Thumbprint

**__ **Mr. Ghosty a.k.a. _The Ghost of James Esser _is real

_**clues:**_

Stamp found on Mr. Ghosty's messages

Ms. Rodnoc's fire insurance? Looked_ really _old—not recently bought

Ms. Rodnoc's contract?  
Ghost made by Special Effects, meaning Head of Studio must give permission

Rodnoc Studio has lots of $ but save for themselves

Chad looked from the notebook in bewilderment, seeing Sonny still tightly clenching her flashlight, its beam dancing about the room.

"You thought _we _did it!?" he croaked in awe.  
"Hey," Sonny pouted, looking up at him. "I crossed it off after you guys started getting hurt!" she snapped back.  
"Oh, _gee_," Chad rolled his eyes sarcastically. "_Thanks_!"

With both a bit infuriated with each other, the two were in the midst of the darkness, in some unknown hallway. The light on Sonny's flashlight was beginning to grow dim, spreading more tension. As they continued walking down the corridor, Chad shivered, staring into the eyes of the ghastly framed pictures of people during the lively time of when Studio 13 was in use.

The flashlight died. The two stopped in their tracks, in fear of not knowing where to go anymore in the fright of the blackness. Chad nearly jumped as he felt his clammy hand be clasped by someone's—Sonny's. The overwhelming darkness wasn't much of a help either. As he looked over to her with morphing slight amusement, Sonny's retort didn't help her.  
"It's dark and I can't see a _thing! _I'm _scared!" _she hissed, wanting to make sure Chad knew by her tone that she would never hold onto him for comfort on her own…well, not _yet_.

Chad marveled at himself, _exceptionally _full of himself right now. "Well it's a good thing you're with _Chad Dylan Cooper. _I never get_—"_

Just then, a voice erupted from the further end of the musty old hallway, deafening the two stars' ears as the sound became a stomach-hurling shriek.

"_OOHHHHHOooohhhh—__**AHHHHHHH!!!!!!! HELP MEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeee……**__"_

The scream was gone, though its echoes remained, as if the person who screamed had never truly left yet. Soon enough, the air was quiet as the kids huddled against each other in fear.

"Alright, I'm scared too," squeaked Chad.  
No longer had Chad whimpered in fear that a startling fire appeared out of nowhere, circling around the teen stars with blazing burning devilish flames, its embers spewing out. With the suddenness from blinding dark to blurring bright, Chad and Sonny squinted, unable to make out anything at this point besides the inferno they found themselves in the heart of.

With Chad's _manly _screams hurtling right into her ear, Sonny looked around in devastation, her head whipping left and right to find _something _to get rid of the fire…when she saw it. And she stared at it in mystification, knowing she had seen it, but she couldn't _believe _it.

As if the circumstance wasn't horrible enough, each star facing their death, a cold chill wrapped around the two, despite feeling blaring heat from the flames. That was when they found themselves face-to-face with James Esser…_the ghost. _They had never been so close to the disembodied body: Blood stains glittered in silver across the man's heart, all over his suit and tie—the clothing from the 50's. His face was unusually handsome…despite it being twisted by death, morphed into an underworld-like state…his eyes pallid black like never-ending tunnels with no escape…_  
_

"_Leave now," _the ghost dangerously whispered in a somber state, "_or join me in death…"_ Not wanting to become…_distracted _by the ghost from her sudden unveiling, Sonny's hand jerked from Chad's sweaty palm, as she tried slamming her hand into the flashlight to make _something _happen at least. She had to try…_she had to make sure.  
"Sonny…!!" _Chad panicked, grabbing onto Sonny even tighter as they felt their bodies molding into one, trying to avoid getting burned by the encircling fire that narrowed in closer and closer and closer…  
"We're…" Sonny grunted, bashing the thing into her hand, praying she wouldn't break it, "_not _getting scared today, Chad," she encouraged—the light sparked on.  
Quickly grinning, Sonny waved the flashlight over to a small device in the ceiling—as soon as she did, _everything _disappeared—flames, ghost and all.  
Shaken, Chad looked down in a disheveled state, finding his arms tightly around Sonny before he abruptly let go. "W-what h-…how'd you do that?" Chad found himself at a loss of words.  
Sonny's frightful nature suddenly lightened up as she faced Chad. "Look up there," she stated, her flashlight beam still on a small device. Chad narrowed his eyes to gain better sight—in the light beam was a…a scene…playing like a movie…of fire, and the ghost…  
"It was a hologram the whole time," Sonny whispered for some unknown reason. If there was a hologram, then there was someone _behind _the hologram. She peered around. "I bet there's speakers somewhere too."

Chad looked in awe, still shaken when Sonny tapped his arm. "C'mon, let's go. We need to solve this," she whispered, her statement partially a plea to Chad for his help.  
With one firm nod from him and gently grabbing the flashlight from Sonny, the two continued walking down the way, with Chad leading the way. Sonny had just unmasked one aspect of the mystery, he couldn't let her do _all, _it'd show him as a _ninny _then!

The hallway adjourned to a room. As Chad was near it first, he narrowed his eyes, holding the flashlight stiffly like a knife, eye-level.  
"Well _that's _weird."  
Unable to see behind his taller frame, Sonny stood on her tippy-toes, trying to look besides him though the small hallway wouldn't allow it.  
"What?" Sonny piped.  
Chad turned around to Sonny, his pale face illuminated with a curious expression. "What's a random library doing in a _stage_?" Chad then chuckled at his _joke. _ "_Awh, _guess you'll fit _right in_, you Random."

Usually, Sonny would have shook her head, glaring at Chad but it surprised Chad to find her lightly smiling. She gave him a playful punch to the jerk's arm. In actuality, Sonny couldn't be happier to find herself _not _alone in this phantasmal environment—she would had left running out screaming if Chad hadn't gripped her with such security. With a smile, Sonny playfully punched the jerk. In truth, she was grateful that his ego was large enough to lighten the mood, and yet not so inflated today to annoy her.

She peered around the room, awestruck at the intricate Victorian design of the whole room. Each wall was covered in mahogany shelving. Inside each shelving contained literally hundreds of books, all dusty, each in solitude for 50 years, their stories unread. On the opposite side from the door was what was left of a fireplace. The place appeared to not have been in use for hundreds of years…_or fifty._ Light burn marks scarred the velvet curtains, the rich wooden casings and pillars. It seemed as this was the only part of the original studio that was left _nearly _untouched by the fire all those years ago.

Narrowing his eyes on Sonny's behavior, Chad awkwardly stood silently looking around when Sonny comically lowered her voice. "Now let's split up, gang!"  
The boy hesitated, scratching his ear. "Um…Sonny? Seeing as it's only us two, I'd _rather _not," he shuddered, every so often looking behind him nervously when he heard a creak.  
Sonny nodded before her excitement burst out once again. "There's always a secret kind of passageway here… Chad, help me find a book that'll open some doorway!" she urged. Before long, ten, twenty frail and crisp books were safely piled as she continued searching for a fake book that was the switch to a _secret room.  
_

Chad stood on the side, rolling his eyes as he watched Sonny in boredom pulling away books.  
"_Nooo," _he sarcastically shuddered. "It's in this _light switch," _he retaliated, slowly walking over to where a nearly-burnt light switch dial was.  
Sonny wrinkled her nose. "The whole place is burned down. Why would the lights still work?"  
Her remark was too much for Chad to bear as he stood near the switch, his hand ready to turn the knob when he looked at Sonny dubiously, wondering if she really _could _be that dumb. Somehow he found his own hand slapping his forehead as he unintelligibly muttered.  
"I…" he found himself saying to the girl numbly, "was _being …sarcastic…" _  
After staring at each other in tension, Sonny snorted. "You _were _right. Humor doesn't work for you." Grumbling, Chad turned the knob over when suddenly they heard a loud slide, like wood falling into a catch…  
"_AHHH!"  
_ Sonny screamed. Chad swerved, looking over to where Sonny had just been when he noticed a square piece of the floorboard missing. "_Sonny?" _he callously called out in confusion, walking towards the missing floorboard when he realized it was a trapdoor.  
"I'm over here."  
Down below stood Sonny, about six feet below, just tall enough for her to stand to her full height without having herself bent over.  
"_Whoa_," Chad muttered to himself. "That's weird."

As Chad quickly followed suit, he and Sonny looked about the tunnel they had just entered—a gruesome watery tunnel with a particular kinda of stench stretched _miles _before and behind them.  
"C'mon," Sonny whispered, turning her flashlight on again as the two made their way quietly through the secret tunnel. Scampers through the water were heard, and Chad could had sworn he felt something brush by his feet. Along the way, they sighted another pathway, but the feeling it gave off, being the 'demonic' kind of dark, with cobwebs and eerie creatures sounding from the distance, they decided to go through their later…if they ever survived. For now—they would continue on the straight path.

The two continued walking, for what seemed like ages when fifteen minutes later, with aching feet and Chad's back hurting from having to hunch down a little, a light source was found from the top of the tunnel.

Glancing at each other, mentally conversing whether or not they thought it was safe to go up, Sonny gently pushed the floorboard up. To her surprise, it eased open easily, and thus she slid it onto the floorboard above, fashioning a way to get out. Moments later, Sonny found herself in a dark small room—a closet of some sort with broomsticks, garbage bags—a janitor's closest.

Finding the coast clear, she quietly gave out a hand to Chad, helping him up to get above. Not before long, the two stepped out, finding themselves in a hallway, in which branched out towards a stage similar to their own... in a _synonymous _company...

_...Rodnoc Studio..._

Sonny turned to Chad in awe. "We're in Rodnoc Studio, aren't we?" Chad's shocked gaze at the room infront was answer enough. The two faced the stage they were in, though it looked nothing like gorgeous falls or a fast-food restaurant or any other set at Condor's. Lighting was managed such a way that heat actually soothed out from the source, as if it were the sun, tanning the multiples missing Condor stars on authentic Cuban white sand...the missing Condor stars...all _here, _enjoying themselves.

Tawni and Portlyn, on beach chairs, appeared to be politely arguing back and forth over rumors, both in silky sundresses. As the sound of the ocean waves crackled from the hidden hi-tech speakers, handsome topless servers in just shorts and black ties strolled around, handing out icy cool drinks in the stimulated heat. Zora of course, was playing with the random otters in the artificial ocean. All in all—Chad and Sonny happened upon the set of paradise.

Soon enough, one of the topless brazen men cleared his way over, wearing the flirtatious smile Sonny always found in Chad one too many a times.

Biting her lip blushing, Sonny gave a generous smile as thanks as the suave man offered them a drink. Somehow she found her finger twirling her hair.  
Chad's eyes narrowed, knowing Sonny well.

_Smash. _The pineapple pina-colada drink just in Chad's hand mere seconds ago splashed right at the handsome server's face and his glistening copper chest.  
"_Oh my gosh_," Chad stated in mock sympathy. "I-I am _so sorry. _I'm just _so clumsy. _I tripped over this," Chad looked around him, finding white sand and nothing more at his feet, "_rat_," he apologetically smiled. "This _big...old...rat," _his smirk began showing up. "You guys _really _should see to that." With one final conceited shrug, Chad happily guided a confused Sonny who so happened to be looking for this_ big rat, _not knowing it was Chad himself, as the server behind them huffed angry mutters.

"_Heh_," Chad then took a sip from Sonny's strawberry-lime drink as the two wandered back to the quiet hallway, thinking better to address their pals who seemed to be enjoying themselves. Attention need not to have been brought when one was at a rival studio, having entered through a secret tunnel. "No wonder the guys never came back. If I was _kidnapped, _I'd _definitely _like to stay here."

Sonny's ears perked up: footsteps were head from the hallways around the corner. Gently tugging on Chad's soft pirate-y shirt, she motioned for him to lie low to the pillar near them. Unseen, the two noticed Ms. Rodnoc humming to herself as she quietly made her way towards the paradise set doors.

With the hallway cleared, Chad popped out leaning on the pillar, with Sonny doing so like-wise below him comically.  
"Chad, look," she whispered. On the column opposite to them, a large sign was scene:

_"__***NOTICE***_

_Rodnoc Studio will be shutting down in one week until further notice" _

"Let's go back, alright?" Chad whispered, a bit edgy for some reason since they've been at the rival studio. He could feel his awesomeness dropping and had to stop it.

"Yeah," nodded Sonny. "You're right. I think we've found enough we can here."

Before long, the two crept back into the tunnel, now deciding to take the other passageway they passed early on. It hadn't taken that long as it did the first time when Chad this time propped open the trapdoor, easing into the darken and burnt room before he helped Sonny out.

Chad quickly wiped off the soot and dirt from his white shirt. "_Whoa_, where are me?" Instantly, Sonny drew out her flashlight—though dim, it was able to cast out and illuminate their surroundings.

Sonny gasped horrifically in awe. "This is James Esser's room!"


	7. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I don't own SWAC nor the quote from 'Suite Life', or a quote from the 3rd Harry Potter movie. And this was already typed last week like the last chapter, since they were originally one chapter. After my Physics exam passes, I'll be able to completely finish off the story. And I apologize if the chapter here sounds bland, like 'he says/she says' with not much variety in vocabulary--my mind REALLY got confused by how to 'solve' this mystery so you guys wouldn't get confused. But when I finished typing this last week, I completely 'EEEEPPPP!" Like, I was able to solve a mystery--well, partially because I created it, haha. And on a random note: I'd be so happy if Chad, in the show, did what Oliver did in the latest Hannah Montana episode last week--where he and Lily kinda broke up because he was hitting on all the girls when he was famous by the 'America's Got Talent' thing. And so when Oliver made up with Lily at the end, it was SO incredibly sweet! And I was thinking like 'If Chad and Sonny got together, and then broke up, I'd love for them to get back together like how Oliver and Lily did!'

* * *

Recap: _The two crept back into the tunnel, now deciding to take the other passageway they passed early on. It hadn't taken that long as it did the first time when Chad this time propped open the trapdoor, easing into the darken and burnt room before he helped Sonny out. _

_Chad quickly wiped off the soot and dirt from his white sexy pirate shirt that lowered enough for his tan chest to peep out. "Whoa, where are we?" _

_Instantly, Sonny drew out her flashlight—though dim, it was able to cast out and illuminate their surroundings._

_Sonny gasped horrifically in awe. "This is James Esser's room!"_

Chad's nose wrinkled up before he began complaining. "How is it that you know everything?!" he hissed.  
Sonny pointed over to the emblazon yet incinerated door. "Cuz there's a sign there."  
"Oh."  
Sonny, noticing how much the moonlight seemed to magnify with all the mirrors around the room, nearly having the room eerily lit up, turned off her flashlight and placed it into her bag, which she gently placed on the floor. The whole room was disgustedly morphed into that similar of an old crisp morgue. The fire had made every thing stench like rotten wood. The canopy with the, what could had once been a rich, very fluffy bed, were charred as were each wooden wall. Nearly all of the wooden floorboards creaked and were broken in. The only objects seemed to be in minimal damage were those of metal, and even _then, _the metal casings and tables were a bit deformed.

"You search there. I'll look here," she stated and for once, Chad did what he was told.

It was as if someone had already ransacked the place after the fire occurred 50 years ago. Some mirrors were smashed, dressers taken apart, shelving dangling around.

Chad looked around the spider-filled cabinets. "Someone's been here..._recently," _he stated before shuddering as his hand contacted the cobwebs.  
On the floor though, Sonny bent down, finding a metallic box. Inside was a crumpled letter. Carefully unfolding the ancient and deceased letter, she read to herself: "_**W**__atch __**W**__ords __**w**__ith __**W**__." _Under it all, she found a sort of initials of a J and E.

"_**AHHHHHHH!" **_Chad screamed, having Sonny whip her head in fear over to him. What she saw amused her: the heartthrob was kicking around, his frenzied arms dancing about as if he were a puppet, and his strings were in the jaws of a running dog.

Hearing her non-covered laughter, Chad stopped, in frozen fear. "There was...this...this _thingie!" _He whined high-pitched.

Sonny pursed her lips jubilantly. "_Thingie..._really, Chad," she grinned.  
Glaring unmercifully at her, Chad straightened his collar. "There were _bats," _he disdainfully corrected, though Sonny continued to smug.  
"Well, looks like we were wrong, Chad—you _do _fit right in here," she giggled. "Those bats will feel like their _brother_ has joined them."  
Again, Chad shook his head unbelievably.

"You'll be sorry when I'm an international movie star and _you _are the one who'll be stuck with all those … _grossiest bats_."  
Sonny scoffed. "Why would I still be in this room?"  
It was Chad now, who smirked. "Oh no," he sappily smiled. "I was talking about your _friends,"_ he meekly challenged sarcastically.

Sonny, her anger deeply bottled up, could only breath deeply, being the _nice _girl that she was.  
"At least I know how to _talk_ right," she calmly stated. "No wonder Tween Weekly says James Esser's like you—he couldn't spell either!"

That's when it hit Sonny. She dazed, recollecting a recent memory.

~*~Flashback~*~

_Zora picked up one of the movie cases closest to her reach. "_When you **Wants** To'_?" __She read the movie title's name. "Geez, you'd think they'd have better writing skills back then!" Zora enlightened as she tossed the video to the pile.__  
_

_~*~Flashback~*~_

"Oh my _gosh..." _Sonny gasped slowly, her eyes widen. It all made sense now. "Chad, _that's_ what Esser was referring too—the W's! I'm _sure _of it!"

Chad groaned. "Sonny, what are you talking about?" But she was too far ahead of him—it all clicked in, she reached her epiphany, basking in the new-found information. It seemed to her that she had traveled so far, and yet when she spun around to face Chad, he stood in the same confused expression.

"Chad, find all the movie titles that start with a 'W'," she demanded.  
Chad narrowed his eyes. "Quit bossin' me around!"

"_Do it!" _she snapped.  
"Ok, ok."

Quickly making her way over to him, the two sprawled over all the 50's stuff, peering through boxes of authentic 50's movie film when one case dropped from Sonny's hands, sliding under the burnt bed they sat by.

Sonny reached out, her hand feeling through under the unknown of underneath the bed, making a disgusted face as small crunchy dead bugs crackled under her light touch.  
"It's stuck," she grunted.  
"Lemme do it," Chad sighed, being the muscles of _the team.  
_The two exchanged places, with Chad yanking hard on the stuck box when he heard the wooden board crack and split.  
"It..." he grunted, trying to reach further without seeing. "It fell in!"

Soon enough, with his face as red as a strained tomato, took a heavy breath as he managed to pull the case back in...now with a metal box hooked near the side of the film casing. Inside was a delicate leather journal, its pages yellowed by age.

"What's this?" Sonny questioned lightly as Chad began to rub his aching muscles, not happy one bit.

Chad quickly snatched it, wanting to at least be in on what Sonny was chirping about. He skimmed through the passage, finding dates, a writing in smooth calligraphy that was rare now adays. Clearing his throat, he began to read an excerpt:

"_Isn't it unbelievable how love can be found before your eyes? I'm catching myself falling for my make-up artist, Marly Jean. What an angel she is. My heart cannot wait to obligate her to marriage. I have told her she is the inspiration for my next movie_—"Where the Road Knocks_." __Do you know what she told me, that doll? She tinkered her laugh—the one that is so childishly cute—and said did she, 'Why, you compare me to a road? You_ beast_!' __And I tell her, 'nay, my love. You are the knock. You are the signal to new adventures—the glorifying sound of a new day. You are the oncoming light that blesses my soul.' She is my knock on the road…my road knock_."

It felt as if an eternity had passed, as Chad and Sonny had gone back in time and back again. Slowly they gazed up to look at one another, both deep in thought.

"Chad," Sonny quivered, her lips trembling. "Say that again!"  
But Chad broke out of the spell, snapping out. "But it's _long_!" he whined.  
"Read it!"  
"I already _did!"  
"Chad!"_

This time, he smirked. "Why? You're falling for me?"  
Growing tired, Sonny snapped. "_No! _Now read the last line."  
And he read, heaving that he would never do what she said after tonight. "She is my knock on the road…she is my road knock_…_road knock…Rodnoc_….Studios?"  
_Again, the two looked at one another—both reaching towards the same conclusion. _"_Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Sonny slowly smiled, which soon after Chad's retort, fell off her face.  
"Well, right now I'm thinking how amazing I am, because you just don't _find _handsome guys like me!" Chad smiled in a love-struck fashion. "But if you're talking about something else besides me, do you mean that Chihauhaus have _huge _ears?" he widely grinned. The way he was addressing the situation, it was _Sonny _now who gawked at him, gaping.  
"Because compared to their little bodies," Chad continued his rant, "they're gi_nor_mous_! _I shoved one once and—"  
"Would you _stop _it!?" she shrieked out loud, repetitively smacking him with the very _delicate _diary. "Don't you realize Ms. _Rodnoc _is Esser's true love?" she tried calming herself down, handing the diary back to Chad. "The one the old newspaper articles always talked about!" she hissed. "Keep reading."

Chad flipped over to the next page and began to read again: "_I have told Marly Jean that I will turn down my possession of the studio; I have written that it shall go to Senior Condor instead. Marly Jean did not seem keen to this idea—instead, she became truly aggravated! She said she would like to manage my studio if I didn't wish to. The thought! A woman of mine to run an establish man's job. I told her, 'There's no place for a woman in an industry,_' _I said."_

Scurrying through the pages, Chad tried finding the next entry. "And the next one seems to be written the day of his death," Chad muttered, analyzing the date.  
"_Marly Jean is gone. She says she will be back for my premiere—how else will I look amazing as I do without my make-up artist?"_

Sonny impatiently tapped the page to gain Chad's attention. "Do you notice how there's some tension between them right before his death?" she stated in awe as Chad's eyes narrowed when he flipped the page over. "You don't _just _go from '_love of my life' _to _'average make-up artist'. _Something happened between them."  
Chad muttered as he analyzed the back page. "The paper said she was probably with another man. That's one rare rumor that turned out true, then."  
He then moved the journal over to Sonny's lap next to his own. "Sonny, look at this message. Wasn't it in that crumpled piece of paper you just had?" Sonny stretched her head forward, just enough to catch sight of the same message talking about finding 'W's.

Sonny then took the journal, looking through all the pages—for every excerpt, James had initialed with a 'J' and an 'E'...they looked scribblish, not detailed at all—just plain 'J' and 'E' that appeared _stuck _on each other. _Then what was the ghost's sign it left whenever it left a message? _

"Why did he write his signatures a bunch of times and cut some of them out?" Chad questioned softly when they reached a page in the journal that had multiple 'JE's' scribbled and as if someone had cut the JE's at the bottom of the page out. (A/N: view: http:// img . photobucket . com / albums / v479 / talukderr / je . jpg)

"Quick, did you find all the movie cases?"

Chad rolled his head off to one direction. "Almost. They're over there."  
Sonny scampered off towards the adjacent side of the bed, trying to finish their original task of collecting all the film casings that started with a 'W' when she let out a '_ha!'. _Chad turned, wondering what could had made Sonny so excited. She kneeled down beside him.

"I _knew _I've seen his actual signatures before!" the Random pointed over to one of the movie cases that had started with a 'W'. Underneath one of the words in the movie title was Jame's sign, a cut-out of from his diary. "This is the real Esser signature," Sonny's words rushed out in enthusiasm. "That means the sign from the ghost were all fake."

Nodding his head, Chad diligently began aligning all the 'W' movie cases side-by side, pulling Sonny's notebook from her pocket and began to write the words that had Esser's initial under it.

Sonny of course had not noticed Chad's touch or she would had obviously blushed. No, the girl's mind raced even further, piecing all the evidence together. "Ms. Rodnoc is Marly Jean," she expressed certainly. "She was 17-years-old 50 years ago—if she were still alive today, she'd be as old as the Rodnoc owner. Chad, it all fits!" A solution then dawned on Sonny. "We could even ask her how it all happened!"

But Chad's features now looked shocked from what he came across from the secret message in the cases. "Not according to _this_," he whistled.

In confusion, Sonny leaned over against Chad, reading from what he came up with. In her notepad, he had written out each movie title that had started with a W and then underlined the word that Esser had initialed:

"**W**hy Me?" "**W**ho Wants To?" "**W**hat Kill Happiness?" "**W**here the _Road Knock__**"**_

But when Sonny read the last movie title, something didn't sound right...then she knew...

"Esser _custom-made_ these," Sonny's voice was suddenly hushed. "He _knew _something was wrong." Furiously, her fingers scurried over finding the journal excerpt they had just read. "Here, Esser said '_I have told her she is the inspiration for my next movie_—"Where the Road Knock**S**_'—_with an _**s.**_

She then muttered to herself. "But the stamp on all the ghost's messages doesn't make sense…they're not anything similar..."

Chad scoffed, upset that Sonny would rush off to her own little world of thoughts when he had just laid before a _very _serious clue. "Here I go, trying to make you _proud _of me, and you don't even _notice? _Did you even _read _what the message said?" he said in an annoyed manner.

Sonny cooed inside. "_Awh, _you wanted to make me proud?"

Chad's glare only answered her.

"Oh," Sonny looked at him. "Sorry." She then read the underlined words in order, when her eyebrows creased. "_Me Wants To Kill Rodnoc?"  
_Chad shrugged. "Seeing as _he _died first, I'd say the message's '_Rodnoc wants to kill me_.'"

As he awkwardly stood up, Sonny looked up to him sadly. "It all makes sense," she lightly smile, though she couldn't help but feel disappointed in how Esser's _love story _came to be...where instead of a _happily-ever-after, _the woman had caused her own ending, causing the man's ending as well...

Chad then brought Sonny back into her sense."Let me see that stamp thing," he ordered softly. When she did so, Chad quietly paced over to near where the broken mirror stood. Though of course, a mirror to him meant time for some 'Chadness'—so he could do the only thing a Cooper could do..._bask in the glory of his reflection.  
_Smirking at himself, fixing his hair, it was then that Chad noticed seeing the reflection of the SR stamp in his hand as well...on the mirror...it was an _RS...(_A/N: view http:// img . photobucket . com / albums / v479 / talukderr / ghosttrademarkcopy . jpg)

"_Sonny?" _He panicked over, having Sonny eagerly join him. The two both stared at the mirror. "What?" Sonny called out.  
"What two letters does the stamp show you?" he calmly asked.  
Sonny wrinkled her nose. "An S and a R."

Chad patiently nodded his head. "In what order?'

Slowly, Sonny placed it together. "R...S..." she whispered, her voice quiet enough that it sparked fear between the two, "_Rodnoc Studio..."_. As Sonny noted the letters, Chad turned over the stamp, so that they noticed how the 'RS' part was on the back, seeing the stamp as molded inward, so that the 'SR' was molded outward. Sonny gasped. "It was right in front of our nose the whole time," Chad cautiously stated.  
"Not directly, at least," Sonny mentioned.

Chad nodded. "We were right about it being backwards though, just not SR."

Before he slipped the rubber stamp back into the bag, Chad held the object in demonstration. "If you have a mold that says 'RS'...which was imprinted on the inside of the stamp..."  
Sonny finished in exclamation. "Then it'll turn out _backwards!" _Chad nodded again, this time only genuinely smiling. "_Exactly." _  
A thought occurred to Sonny though. "But if that's the studio insignia for _Rodnoc Studios_, then why would it be backwards? You'd think they'd want people to see their initials."

Chad shrugged. "My guess is that one—they just turned over the mold backwards to stay hidden so we wouldn't find out or two—they're _idiots_."

The girl couldn't hold back her smile. "Good guess." She then remembered something and looking back at it, Sonny grinned, feeling like an idiot. "When I accidently bumped Ms. Rodnoc, she had a fancy little signature that looked like some sort of spirit. Now that I think about it, the ghost's sign had similar decorative traits usually girls only pulled off. I should had known..." she shook her head.

Her head turned when she felt Chad's hand on hers. "Hey," Chad encouragingly smiled. "None of us knew. But now we need to _solve _this, right?"  
Sonny blushed, biting her lip on the side. "Right."

_It was wonderful indeed to have all these information, but now what? What was Marly Jean Rodnoc's motive?_

This question did not have to be directed out loud for the two stars to simultaneously think about that.

Sonny mumbled to herself as the two quietly sat near each other on the burnt yet still comfy bed. "Ms. Rodnoc killed him 50 years ago...but what's she doing now?"

Chad thought. "Well, let's start from the beginning: They fell in love—"

Sonny continued. "But in reality, Rodnoc only liked him for his money."

The teen heartthrob then eagerly stated excitedly. "But he _dropped _the studio," he pointed out. "So there'd be no way to get it when he was ..._around," _Chad wrinkled his nose, at the word he had substituted for 'alive'.

"So she killed him off," Sonny clapped her hands, "easy as that, then waited all these years until she could buy it off from the new owner—Senior Condor."  
Chad waved his finger excitedly at Sonny, smiling such a way that was similar to his 'conceited' face. "And Condor's dad did good...now Mr. Condor himself is doing better—_we're_ doing _great_, so her own way to get this place is to _force _us to leave. And she has to act even quicker because she's going out of business, remember? And once _she _loses _her _studio, well," Chad gave out a smug smile as he shrugged, "she can't exactly buy _ours_ then."

Sonny awed. "But if she _were _able to get our studio, then she'll have complete control! How _devious!" _she gave out her toothily grin.

Chad couldn't help but grin also. "And special effects to make the ghost makes sense—she's the head of the place so she had every right to make her team do it."

Chad pointed his finger at Sonny. "I bet you a Tween Choice Awards she…," but then Chad couldn't help but chuckled. "Who'm I kidding, you guys'll _never _win a Tween Choice Award!" Clenching her teeth and fist, the girl could only tightly smile. "Back to what you were _saying, Chad!" _

"Well, I just feel like Rodnoc only wants to buy this place to burn it all up—"

In unison, they replied—"_The fire insurance_!"

She grinned ecstatically, her mind basking in this newly imbibed information. "How does insurance even work?"

Chad shrugged, his 'full-of-it' attitude becoming quite full. "Well, you certainly have to _own _something to begin with," he rolled his eyes.  
The girl bit her lip, thinking as she paced back and forth in the room while Chad sat on the floor. "If Rodnoc had married Esser, she would had been entitled to his property, assets...his studio too."

Her face jerked over to look at Chad. "Chad, her fire insurance wasn't recent. It looked old," she shuddered.  
Chad's eyebrow raised suspiciously. "Like, _50-years_-old?"

"Maybe," she nodded. It all began to make sense, the evidence connecting to each other like one big circle. "That means she's had this planned from the beginning—planned that if she ever _were _to marry him, she'd kill him right off...and it's still her plan now. If we got kicked out, she would probably set all our studios on fire, just to get the money that should had been hers!"

Silence edged between the two as Sonny and Chad gazed at each other, brought with sudden understanding. The two began to think—_how could someone be so cruel? Be so inhumane to treat someone who loved her like that as just something disposable? _The moonlight glow in the room only enhanced the now-soothing romantic feel of being together when Sonny broke it off; apparently not _everything _was answered.

"But how could an old _lady_ get away with all of this?" she snorted.

The two quietly sat and thought when Chad softly responded. "She used her actors. They're young, strong, agile—"

Sonny gave off a weird look towards him. "_Really, _Chad. _Agile_? _This _from the guy who says 'thingie' and 'grossiest'?" she laughed. Chad grimaced fondly at her.  
"Look, I'm just saying that anyone's who's too sweet for their own good always uses people."

Sonny was in the middle of playing with the purple passion flower from the bag, playing with it in her fingers smiling child-like and innocently, paying no attention until his words hit her mind, having jaw-drop in disagreement.

Chad meekly grinned. "No offense."  
But Sonny's strained smile nearly had him scared. "You know," she sarcastically smiled, "just because someone says 'no offense,' doesn't make it NOT offensive!" she argued.

Chad shrugged, which Sonny realizes he does too many times for his own good. "Fine. Offense granted," he grinned stupidly.

"Fine," Sonny retorted.

"Good," Chad shrugged—_see what she meant?_

Sonny then sighed. "_Good riddance._"

And just like sudden mood swing, she beamed again, bubbly. "_Oh my gosh!_ _Chad_! We solved it! We solved the mystery! _What am I talking about!?" _she laugh. We just solved _two _mysteries!!!"

Before long, Chad found Sonny flinging herself into his arms, her hands snuggly wrapped around him. He couldn't help but smile and return the hug back, letting his wary soul rest on her warm and dependable shoulders.

But Chad's warm blue eyes sensed something..._movement. _They were caught...and not by their friends, or someone else who insisted that their rivalry stayed true. No—someone menacing was watching them, and perhaps him and Sonny only had a few moments to escape. Sonny on the other hand had no idea for why Chad would not let Sonny out of her arms, as she began to budge, trying to get out, but to no avail—Chad clung on tightly to her, suspending her activity. He continued to spy behind Sonny's back.  
"Sonny," Chad's voice suddenly sounded ragged with worry on Sonny's ear, "run towards the light when I tell you; _get out," _he spoke harshly. "They're wearing night vision goggles...that's how they've been able to creep up on us in the dark with all the messages. _Don't let them find you_," Chad used his breath to hide his words from other ears, his message only intended for Sonny.

Shocked by the sudden overturn, Sonny's eyes widen, confusion all throughout her mind, unable to grasp on the situation at hand. "_What?"_

And just like that, Chad shoved her away. "_Go, now!" _With a head start from Chad's shove, Sonny found herself sprinting through the darkness of Studio 13 as fast as she could when she heard a loud metallic clang from behind that rang for several more minutes, along with a grunt.

._..Chad was just attacked by a masked person..._

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A/N: I'm pretty sure we have one more chapter left now =)


	8. Chapter 7

Yes, I know I didn't update on Halloween—I hated myself for it. But I had a somewhat crappy Halloween plus the day before and I was annoyed for the most part so please don't say anything about it. And I'm quite grateful no reviewer like bugged me to update today—it really means a lot.

*Shakes annoyed mood up to sunshine one*

Review contest winner for the last two chapters (relatively)

**daseyrocks**—6008**  
mindless scribbles**—5150**  
MusicFreak-Sonny**—4918**  
lifeisveryshortandsoami**—4506**  
Kylie Robbins**—4265**  
sonnycentral**—3192**  
best with breadsticks**—3152

Shoutouts to **Jonas x Knight** and **AnalystProductions** who left either a few or one review(s)—but it was quite long though. Unfortunately, not long enough to 'enter the review race'.

Thanks to all the reviewers!! I greatly appreciate every single one of your hard work to take the time to read my horrifically long chapters:

_**daseyrocks, mindless scribbles, MusicFreak-Sonny, lifeisveryshortandsoami, Kylie Robbins, sonnycentral, best with breadsticks, xxsonnywithachance37xx, hannahpie45, ariana, NightxInxSterlingxArmor, Jonas x Knight, Eilidh-xx, Dancing on Rainbows., monkey87, HorriblyAddicted, pinkconcshell, gAnGsTa GaBbY lOvEs JoKeR, Literati Lover, Zoezora, percabethforever369, silver~roses, Harryfan94, xHeSaidSheSaidx, Dancing-StarryEyedDemigod, Change4Good, JateLexzieLit, Bhavana331, Spunkalovely, TheEntertainer26, EllietheDisneyfreak, AnalystProductions, Kspazzed, Fluffness, ConfusifyingCristy, Always Juliet, klcthenerd, xxHeadInTheStarsxx, xoredsoxnation21xo, percabethforever369, mahjong90mulan, DMLVT6963, ilovenat1995, channylover808, channylover101, Tambug18, addicted2SWAC, All-Stars, lp2014, PixyStix800, XxElementalFirexX, yetti, inkheart4evr, Kate-Emma, obsessedwithbooks, CHANNYLICIOUS, kerropiyvonne, Machlo101, DreamTidus, Sunnyvalley, FunkeyMonkeyLOL, conversee, Dominique, demilovatofan0602, Julia Sonshine, cware, hakmatmanaa, Brandi A.K.A. Ilovemydad **_

Favoriters (who didn't review): _FriendOfTheFallen-x, 24QueenMo, Captainimpalerrox, channy4eva, JediLiz, MaxRideRox, Sarah wucz Emmett cullen, sonny with a zebra shirt, Squirrelflightlover _

Subscribers (without reviewing): 1xAquax1, Ashalynz, Chanii3220, foreverchanny, lalawriter2000, kataang0, lv2readmanga, MyUniqueWeirdLifeCouldbeABook, naomikathryn, Squirrelflightlover, sweet blossom89, x-Lozzeh-x,

And quick note to **AnalystProductions**: I miss you =(

You guys, this is AMAZING—usually my like 6-chapters stories only have about 100-140 reviews—and even then, I'm so grateful for all of that! But nearly 200 for this story—amazing! And for my detective reviewers who tried solving the mystery as they read—well done for you guys!

Random thought—a fanfic that would talk about a SWAC convention would be really cool—like, writing about meeting everyone and that Sonny and Chad—not Sterling and Demi—would like host SWAC stuff. I know I would never have time to work on that story until like 2 years from now, so if anyone's looking for a fanfic project—here's a freebie.

* * *

Please listen to ** http :// www . youtube . com / watch?v=4V_bE9PLewQ** as you read this. The song I performed on the piano is a medley between "_Dastaan-e-Om Shanti Om (Dark Mix)" _from the Bollywood movie "Om Shanti Om", "River Flows in You" by Yiruma, and finally "Say" by John Mayer. Also, the majority of this story wouldn't have been made if the movie "Om Shanti Om" hadn't been made. I copied many of the similar effects like the fire, the 50 year old mystery, those such. Of course, I entwined everything such a way so it's originally my own mystery, but just to be safe. So for anyone who'd like to try watching foreign film, definitely watch that movie.

* * *

Disclaimer: I don't own SWAC, Om Shanti Om, nor the green reptile from "Rugrats", or Scooby Doo quotes, or a WoWP quote, power rangers, or Sponge-bob.

* * *

PLEASE LISTEN TO **http :// www . youtube . com / watch? v=4V_bE9PLewQ** AS YOU READ THIS STORY! I just had to repeat myself for the people who don't read my rambles. =D

* * *

With ragged breath accompanied by silence, clutching her side as she made her way through the dimly lit hallway, Sonny looked up. She looked back in fear—to what had happened to her friend, to if anyone was on her tail. Despite many decorative windows were cracked to serve as a medium between the outside and inside, the outside was not at all windy. Curiously enough though, the 1950's intricate crystal chandelier swung a little, as if a ghost child was sitting on its side, slowly going back and forth. Each of the chandelier's little glass pieces dangled around, making little chime sounds as they threw off dazzling prisms about the room—sending hushed spirits to circle the near-empty dark room.

"Wha, _hey_!" Sonny heard Chad's struggles against the masked person from the other end of the room; it seems as if he had narrowly missed the attack by ducking down. "_You're pretty strong for an old lady_—_OW!_"

"_Chad!_" she screamed, hearing another _whack!, _in fear that Chad could had majorly gotten hurt this time. Of course—she had disobeyed Chad's distinct orders of to immediately escape, not to be seen nor heard—to avoid getting caught. Soft masculine mutters made her way through her ear.  
"She's over there!"

Sonny's eyes widened in comic fear. "_Mis-_take!" she panicked, realizing she let slip her position.

"You keep a'hold of him, I'll go get the girl," Chad heard one of the males beside him plan in a rough patchy voice, leaving the bigger of the males to hold Chad steady as they securely grabbed his hands and hair.

Trying to fight them off, jerking back and forth to get away but to no avail, Chad seethed, with his head being strained up high as the masked man knew how to get Chad by his hair.  
"Hey, this guy has a name, and it's a pretty darn _great one_—!"

Again, the intruder shoved Chad's head, nearly ripping off some of Chad's beloved golden mane. "Quiet, kid."

"Ow..._shutting up_," Chad feebly groaned.

Sonny on the other hand, was trying to outrun the man behind her. Squatting down next to a burnt Greek-designed pillar moment, with her hand clamped tight to her mouth to prevent irregular sound of her heavy breath or any squeal, Sonny's eyes frantically searched to find a way to Chad, and then directly a way out; the man's soft footsteps made it clear to Sonny that she would have to get around him without getting caught. A small grin formed on her lips.

"_Uh, I am Reptor. Hear me roar_!" she hastily roared in deep voice, hoping to scare off the one man.  
"Hey, there you are!" he gruffly said, leaving for Sonny to squeal high-pitch and then scamper away towards safety.

Standing awkwardly in the silence with one massive arm trying to hold him still as the other gripped his hair, Chad meekly asked in the dark, "Um, excuse me, Mr. masked guy? Could you _not _hold my hair please?" He sheepishly grinned at himself in arrogance. "It's kinda what makes me a _heartthrob_….ow!" he conceitedly shrugged when he cried in disdain awe after the masked man had yanked on his hair once again.

If his day could had gotten any worse, it did—Sonny screamed. Not the kind of comic one but the truly terrifying kind, knowing she was physically being harmed. Chad gasped in fear.  
"_Oh no_," his breathing became a shudder. "Sonny, no..._Sonny, RUN!_!" he yelled towards the direction of her mangling shriek. Irritated by his lack of movement long enough, he struggled with the large man on top of him. "Would you get _off of me_!?" Suddenly, he stamped on the man's foot, having in squelch in pain, hopping on his stub toe, letting Chad free to turn and face him.

Chad gasped when he saw little strands of gold beauty in the man's clumsy hands.  
"You did _not," _he scowled in annoyance, pointing to his perpetrator in anger, "just rip out some of _Chad Dylan Cooper's hair!_"

The man in shock looked down at his hands—obviously he wasn't very smart if the first thing he didn't do was try to either get Chad back or run for his life.  
"That there in your hand probably is worth more than your _life!" _Chad cried before becoming angered. "Oh, you're _definitely _gonna pay! _Hua-yaow-ya_!" he cried, flipping his awesome ninja-karate moves inches before the stunned attacker's face.

Seconds later, both stood still, blankly staring at one another.

Seeing his opportunity, Chad scrammed outta there. "Peace out, sucka, _wha-ha_!"

Meanwhile, Sonny had just escaped the other man by attacking him with the large Esser belongings in Sonny's bag: dense golden awards, heavyweight frames, and loads of film casings. Just having managed shaking the man off her tail, she let out a screaming gasp when she bumped into her friend.

"Sonny?"

"Chad! Oh _thank goodness! _How'd you get away?" she whispered in the dark, approaching him with a fast hug.

Even through the faint glow of the light, Sonny's smile was wiped off as she sensed a smirk grow on Chad's lips. "Turns out he was a big fan of mine. 'Bribed him with tickets to a MacKenzie Falls taping and he let me go—just like _that,_" he smugged, snapping for dramatic purposes.

Sonny grinned also, mockingly. "_Ohhh_, so someone _else _was screaming like a girl."

"No," Chad mocked her, wrinkling his nose, "they were _blubbering_ like one," he retorted, connecting their fight to what Sonny had joked about when they had watched the horror movie together.

Hearing heavy footsteps towards their way, their moods suddenly changed. "Chad, we have to get out of here and get the police," Sonny breathlessly addressed. "Right now."

Chad's grin formed a little too _tight _when he saw something behind Sonny_. "_Sonny," he smiled awkwardly, "_dear," _he hesitantly beamed. "Whatever do you _mean?" _his head violently jerked towards beside them. In confusion, Sonny narrowed her eyes, turning around to find Ms. Marley Jean Rodnoc, clapping her way as she dangerously walked towards them.

"_Brava," _she sang out sweetly. "How _extraordinary_. You've solved everything except…_how to escape," _she malevolently chuckled.

Chad and Sonny stood hand-in-hand, glaring at her in hatred.

The fashionable-elderly lady's expression was just _tickled _by the fear in the stars' eyes. "This room will burn again," she calmly stated soothingly, "and Condor's most precious stars will go with it."

"You wouldn't do that," Chad muttered as if only to persuade the woman out of it, reassure himself and Sonny, only to have Sonny laugh besides him mockingly.  
"Chad, she _killed _her supposed '_lover'," _Sonny used air quotes, making the situation at hand a whole lot scarier because of her insane laughter. "What're two kids to _her _then? _Nothing!" _her laugh was beginning to turn into a sobbing plea.

"If you see before you," Rodnoc ushered the two to look around. "You are in the middle of a bonfire—ready to burn as soon as I light_ this," _she smirked, holding out a pocket lighter as Sonny and Chad saw the floor shimmer—oil trails circled around and around them; there'd be _no way _to escape if a fire of any size _did _occur.

"_Great," _Sonny sarcastically toothily grinned. "I'll go grab the _hot dogs!"_

Her sarcastic retorts worried Chad into thinking if she kept this up, they would die even _faster_.

"Sonny, don't," he whispered in fear. But Sonny avoided him, her focus just on the soulless murderer.

"Don't tell me, it was for the money," she spat.

But if anything made the event insane and demonic, it was how the murderer could mercilessly laugh at a time like this. "Of course it was, child. I only went to the helpless man for his worth. And when he didn't take the studio—I…got 'r_id'_ of him." Her smile twitched out of the memory replaying in her mind...of Esser's death.  
"Boys," she plainly stated, addressing her two henchmen, otherwise known as two stars from her studio. "Tie 'em up." Quickly, Chad pulled the scared Sonny into him, hugging her tightly. The two cowered, turning away from the men when _smash! _thedoor in front swung open—the lights turned on.

Letting go, Chad and Sonny straightened up to see who there heroes were—none other than Nico and Grady, standing along side near Condor, Marshall, Murphy, Josh—responsible adults of Condor Studio, all looking angrily at Ms. Rodnoc.

"Don't worry, ya guys!" Nico called out, holding some kind of contraption as he wore the front part of a horse costume. "Dis here _Candy Multiplier Machine _will save you!"

Before long, Grady placed in a single candy into the machine, then cowered back with his hands in his ears. "And _fire!" _Nico shouted out. Everyone stood in suspense, waiting for what happened when the _Candy Multiplier Machine _sputtered and coughed—nothing happened.

Nico looked at his blond friend in fear. "What we gonna do _now?!" _he whined.

"Don't worry! _Costco to the rescue_!" Grady yelled warrior-like, before all the Condor Studio workers heaved the massive amount of candy bags from _Costco _towards the two men, having them topple down by the intrusive weight.

But Sonny's eyes flashed over towards Rodnoc, spying her violently snarling at them as she lit the lighter, holding it near the oil trail.

"_NO!" _she shrieked, gaining everyone's attention. It was too late.

Just then, the glass chandelier swung harshly, enough to break from the wiring and fall....fall _right over Marly Jean Rodnoc. _The people there could had _sworn _though that seconds before hand, they had spotted a transparent man sitting on top of the chandelier framing. Though it trapped her, barricading her to the floor, she was uninjured, unable to harm anyone else from now on as her lighter slid away from her hands as she fell. _Thousands _of little crystal shards sprawled from the epicenter of the fall like little sparkling snow jewels.

Immediately, Condor rushed over to Rodnoc, lifting the bulk of the metallic chandelier frame off of her. "My dad told me _horrible _stories about Esser's lover. I just would had never assumed it was my own _sweet little rival," _he stated as he grabbed her hands behind her back hand-cuff style, leading her past the kids.  
"Eugh," Marley Jean growled. "And I would had gotten away with it _too _if it weren't for you meddling _kids _and your stupid _log _of _clues!"_ she haughtily went out the door pridefully as she threw daggers of coldness to everyone.

"_Scooby-Dooby-Doooo," _Nico howled playfully towards the woman, aggravating her.

"C'mon, kids," Murphy nasally motioned, almost like he _cared _for the kids. "Let's go."

"But shouldn't we—?" Nico hitched his thumb behind them in confession when Condor roared.  
"_Make it happen!"_

Nico and Grady shrugged. "Sweet, we caught the ghost!" Grady grinned in idiocy as the two fist-bumped each other in excitement. "Yeah, man!"

Nico turned over to find Sonny in the middle of the, what was now easily seen as a ballroom instead of just a stage..._the ballroom for a Halloween party and Esser's premiere all those years ago..._

"Yo Sonny, let's get our _trick-or-treatin' on, eh?" _he danced a little as he spoke.

"Yeah," Sonny beamed, truly happy now. "Let me just get the bag of all the artifacts from the other room. I'll catch up with you guys later, alright?"

Grady nodded. "Sure."

As did Nico. "Cool wid us," he grinned.

The adults had left, Nico and Grady like-wise and Sonny narrowed her eyes seeing Chad gone as well. She would had hoped to at least _thank _him for his bravery and protection and help. _Oh well, there was always tomorrow. _But what bugged Sonny _more _was how the chandelier had fallen at the time most needed—there was no wind, it did not look rickety, so why, after more than half a century did it randomly _snap?_

With one problem left unanswered and knowing she'd perhaps never be able to answer it, Sonny quietly made her way to the heavy bag in the middle of the room. Trying to forget it, she looked at what a _mess _she was in the cracked mirror—overall though, she looked good. Her silk purple spaghetti-strapped shirt (part of her purple _Sonnyflower _outfit) was still whole, and her black and orange stripped ruffled short skirt looked fine—her leggings had no tear. With Esser's belongings back in her hand, Sonny made her way back into the ghastly ballroom.

That's when haunting violins started play.

Immediately, she cowered, jumping. "Where's that creepy music coming from?" she comically hissed to herself.

The lights flickered, zapping off as if somehow the moon had decided to go around the world to make everything pitch dark; Sonny's scream was caught in her breath when slowly, the walls began to light up....by candlelight. Sonny couldn't believe it, but there it was—hundreds of candelabras and candles now flickered romantically in the dark. Shifty, the girl spied a figure in the dark nearing towards her, walking ever so slowly—_Chad Dylan Cooper. _

The haunting ghoulish music continued to play.

"Chad—" she began to say when Chad smirked, hands in pirate-trouser pockets, interrupting.

"This song was Esser's favorite when he went to India," Chad noted as if it were the most common information in the world. "Except supposedly he left his love in such state here that she hooked up with another guy," his two fingers side by side ran through the air like a runner as he tried sarcastically emphasizing. "Did you know?"

With arms crossed around her chest, Sonny tried playing cool, though she was really intrigued that Chad had miraculously learned some history. "Really," she stated, a smile twitching across her lips.

Chad nodded, now a foot away from Sonny, offering his hand for her to grab onto as the music now began to sooth down in eerie-ness.

"He was heart-broken," he shrugged before he sucked in his lip, taking his arm out from behind him. That's when Sonny found him holding a gorgeous purple passion flower (A/N: See "Esser's trademark flower in my profile) cupped in his hand as he shyly tucked in the stray chestnut strands of Sonny's hair behind her ear, then adding the prized beloved flower in her soft hair. Momentarily, he placed his other arm around Sonny's waist, as she did so to his shoulder. "But very few people have heard his song of lost love."

Sonny looked down, biting her lip as she felt warm and cozy being right against Chad's body...as he was half a foot taller than her, his see-through pirate shirt was just _asking _to be stared upon. The two continued swinging side by side, just basking in the time they had with each other, letting their moment carrying on for eternity.

"Dip," Chad muttered, which Sonny thought she misheard. But before long, Chad dipped her low, gazing at her warm brown eyes, slowly bringing her back up when he sincerely smiled. "We wouldn't want history to repeat itself now, do we?"

He then gently pushed off Sonny from him, having their hands entwined as they stretched horizontally from one another.

"Repeat from what?" Sonny softly said confused before she pulled back in, lightly spinning herself back into Chad's lenient arms.

The two froze, waiting for the next pulse of music when Chad brought his face closer to Sonny's, modestly smiling at her.  
"Losing love."

By now, Sonny was stunned as Chad then carefully heaved her high into the air with both her hands on his neck than his shoulders as the two spun, then bringing her back down.  
"_Love?_" Sonny whispered, goosebumps now crawling on her skin.

As soon as Sonny tried bringing one hand into Chad's and the other on his shoulder, gently, his hands guided both of Sonny's for them to go back around his neck as he pulled in Sonny closer, his arms snugged tightly around her waist.

Chad shrugged, giving her a playful smile, returning back to normal. "I love myself...my family, friends." He then winked at the confused Sonny. "And my rival". _That's _when he caught himself. "Uh—I-I meant...psh," he hesitantly stuttered, "y-you know!" he panicked high-pitched. "L-_love _t-to..._hate! _Love to _hate _my rival, duh!" Mentally slapping himself, Chad tried avoiding Sonny's giggling gaze on him when she forced him to look at her.  
"Hey," she gently grinned. "I love _hating _you too."

The two continued beaming at one another, both slightly blushing as the hundreds of candles continued to flicker about.  
After a few moments of comfortable silence, Chad chuckled. "I gotta admit, that purple flower makes you one _very _cute _Sonnyflower."_

Sonny laughed along. "Why _thank you, _Chad." It then occurred to her. "Wait, is this what you kept trying to ask me during the Halloween party, Chad? For a _dance_?" she marveled at slowly.

Chad meekly nodded, smiling as if his secrets were out. "You _are _a smart detective."

Just then the heavy framed doors leading to the outside opened—Tawni, in her Tinkerbell costume, met the two glances. Apparently Mr. Condor had found all his missing stars.

"Sonny, we're going Trick-or-Treating now! C'mon!" she said bubbly with urgency.

Sonny gasped in excitement. "Yeah! Trick-or-Treating!" she squealed to Chad, immediately dropping her hands from his neck, grabbing his hands instead to pull him. "Let's go!"

Shaking his head chuckling, Chad knew there was no point in arguing. Grabbing his pirate hat, velvet pirate jacket and eye patch, he sarcastically went in a rough voice, "_Argh, _m'lady."

With one last giggle, Sonny lead Chad out of the building with all their belongs, with almost all answers found. But if you watched really closely, there was someone else waltzing away in the antique ballroom, waltzing away the whole time Chad and Sonny had their dance. This person was happy though—his memory frozen in time before his death occurred, dancing to the traditional Indian music as he glided around the ballroom floor, his arms waiting for him lost love. Glittering sharp green eyes twinkled when he wore his fashion-designer tuxedo. Yet he was smiling about as the young famous actor twirled, dancing with an invisible figure. His features were extremely handsome—broad shoulders, lenient shoulders, dark brown hair that was nicely combed to one side.

_James Esser continued dancing. Even though he danced a waltz with an invisible partner, with his lost love tragically gone, his arms still waiting for her last dance, he danced away for eternity... _

*commercial break*

Sensing more trick-or-treaters by their heavy steps towards her lit creepy decorated house, home to any ghouls, ghosts, witches, vampires, or superheroes on this Halloween night. The door opened and there stood a horse costume—with the two Random boys—Nico in the back and Grady upfront. Except somehow the horse's rear was attached to its face—an awkward sight for the old lady who already hates these kids...a _different _old lady, mind you.

"_Trick or Treat!" _Nico and Grady childishly grinned, trying to use their cutest voice ever.

"Oh," the lady scrunched up her nose, poking her large eyeglasses up. "It's you..._men," _she spat.

Seeing his pal frown at her retort, Grady decided to propose their proposition to the senior citizen. "Ah, but madam, we have created a _Candy Multiplier Machine. _This allows you to give use only one candy—"  
"Only one!" Nico repeated enthusiastically for persuasive effect.

"—even _half _a piece of candy for that matter! And after we insert it here, it'll turn that one in to _hundreds!_" the boys jumped excitedly.

"Yeah?" the woman readjusted her large framed-glasses in curiousity. "Well I got a _Candy Divider Machine!" _

The boys jaw-dropped. "You _do?! _Cool!"

"Yeah, can we see?"

The old woman sarcastically nodded. "Yes you can, Sonnies. _Hiya_!" she screamed then, repeatedly whacking the boys and breaking their machine. Screams of pain cried out from her house as Nico and Grady ran away from her house, screaming as little red dragons, Power rangers and Sponge-bobs laughed at them.

~*~

_If you happen tonight to walk down the dark streets_

_Hoping you'll gain something pleasant to eat_

_Look hard, you may find the ghost of Esser to fleet_

_His icy voice whispering "Trick-or-Treat"_

_You look down at your feet_

_to find Esser's purple passion flower out on a lean_

_Then look up to find the ghost, stare back, holding a blade ever so keen_

_You give a bloody scream_

_So stay safe_

_carry a flashlight_

_Watch for creepy guys in green_

_And to everyone in the mood_

_~*~ Happy Halloween...~*~_


End file.
